






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

©opprig^t 0* 

Slielf.M.2>J2/77TJ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 















THE AUTONYM LIBRARY 


THE AUTONYM LIBRARY. 


Small works by representative writers, 
whose contributions will bear their signa- 
tures. 

32mo, limp cloth, each 50 cents. 

The Autonym Library is published in 
co-operation with Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, of 
London. 

I. The Upper Berth, by F. Marion Craw- 

ford. 

II. Found and Lost, by Mary Putnam- 

Jacobi. 

III. The Doctor, His Wife, and the 

Clock, by Anna Katharine Green. 

IV. The Honour of the Flag, by W. 

Clark Russell. 

V. The Red Star, by L. McManus. 


These will be followed by volumes by 
other well-known writers. 



THE RED STAR 


/by 

L. i\^cMANUS 

AUTHOR OF “ AMABEL, A MILITARY 
ROMANCE ” 


“ Mars in the eighth House, the House of Death 
portends disasters by war.” 

Gramtnar oj' Astrology. 


G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 

NEW YORK LONDON 

27 West Twenty-third Street 24 Bedford Street, Strand 

Ubc 1Rnlcl?crbocl?er ipress 



rT.'i 


Copyright, 1895 
BY 

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 


vTbe Iknicbcrbochec {press, IRcw IRocbcUc, 1R, B 


THIS STORY 
TO THE MEMORY OF 


ARTHUR CORRIGAN McMANUS 

VICTORIAN RANGERS, COLONIAL FORCES 
WHO DIED AT ECHUCA, VICTORIA, 
DECEMBER 2D, l8g4, 


“When the stars threw down their spears.” 


















THE RED STAR. 


1 






The Red Star. 


I. 

I T was in the autumn of 1806 that 
Captain Basil Pahlen, of the Rus- 
sian Imperial Guards, rode out of 
General Benningsen’s cantonments 
to be married to the Countess Halka 
Mnizek. He went unwillingly, re- 
gretting his fate, and felt himself the 
victim of untoward circumstances 
and the whim of others. His be- 
trothal had taken place before the 
Austrian campaign in the previous 
year in the presence of the Emperor, 
the bride being a Polish girl whom 
he had never seen till that hour. He 
had strong personal reasons for not 
wishing to go through the ceremony, 
and these rose so vividly before him 
as he went along the broken track 
that answered for a road, that to his 


3 


4 


Zbc IRed Star 


fancy they acquired body and form, 
and, flitting at his horse’s head, kept 
their warning eyes upon his face. 

The sun had just set, and the top- 
most needles of the pine-tree on his 
right had caught the after-glow. The 
skeleton of a horse lying by the road- 
side had also taken a rosy tint. A 
crow sat on the skull driving its beak 
into one of the eye sockets. Wolves 
as well as carrion birds had helped 
to clean its bones ; and he had seen 
a grey form steal in among the pines 
as he had ridden up. 

Drawing a letter from his sabre- 
tache, he read it slowly through. It 
bore the address. Count Pahlen^ and 
was written in red ink, the crabbed 
writing in parts being all but il- 
legible. 

Basil VassiliMtch^ it ran. His Ma- 
jesty the Tzar hath given me leave and 
doth order that your marriage with 
the Countess Halka Mnizek shall take 
place at whatsoever hour or day I may 
deem necessary. Therefore^ having at 
this time several powerful and urgent 


^Tbe IReD Star 


5 


reasons for knowing that the time for 
fulfilment has come^ I command you to 
hasten to my house — an Imperial order 
having been sent to General Benningsen 
to permit your departure from the camp 
— that the will of all concerned in this 
matter may he carried out, Maste^ 
haste ^ and delay not. 

Count Adam Mnizek, 

The words looked as if they had 
been written in blood as the red ink 
caught the fast fading glow. A fancy 
seized him. He sprang to the ground, 
and, wrapping the letter round a 
stone, flung it into a pool of water 
by the side of the road. It sank 
among the starwort, and a frog leapt 
out of the stagnant water to the reeds 
on the bank. He felt by the act as 
if he had drowned and hidden out 
of sight something that was hateful 
and a menace to his liberty. 

Swinging across his horse, he rode 
into the twilight, with a hard, set look 
in his eyes. He was twenty-five, and 
liked the draught of life he had 
drunk ; but now there was gall in 


6 


ITbe IReb Star 


the cup, and his own deed had been 
his undoing. 

The road he followed wound 
through plains of trampled oats or 
dense woods. When the weather 
changed and the rain fell it would 
be as muddy and impassable as the 
fields themselves. Ruts like gashes 
cut across the way, full of fallen 
leaves ; and as he guided his horse 
by one of the worst he saw a group 
of men standing near the edge of the 
wood. All appeared to be peasants, 
with the exception of a man on 
horseback, who rode armed, and un- 
der whose cloak the glitter of gold 
embroidery could be seen. His 
voice was raised and angry as he 
spoke to the serfs. 

Pahlen caught the answer of a 
peasant as he rode nearer to the 
trees. 

“ Highness,’' the man said, dog- 
gedly, “ our minds are made up. 
Not one in the province will take 
up arms unless we have a Mnizek 
to lead us. If his high excellency 
rides to the war we will follow him.” 


tibe TReb Star 


7 


“ You cowards and dogs ! ” cried 
the horseman. Do you expect the 
half-mad old man who owns you to 
lead you to battle ? '' 

Without his excellency’s word 
we will not rise. If a Mnizek or- 
ders us to risk our necks we shall 
obey,” answered the peasant, stol- 
idly. 

Then a Mnizek shall lead you, 
dogs ! If you are not at the point I 
have told you of by the third day 
you shall be hung, and your wives 
and children shall have their homes 
burnt over their heads when we ride 
by.” 

We hear your high nobility,” said 
the serf, in a more abject tone, and 
if a Mnizek is there we will follow 
him, as our duty is.” 

The horseman wheeled round sud- 
denly at the sound of hoofs, and 
found himself face to face with 
Pahlen. His companions looked, 
alarmed, and drew closer together. 
The sight of the Russian’s uniform 
froze their blood, and one by one 
they gradually slunk into the wood. 


8 


tlbe IRcb Star 


Pahlen rode slowly up, returning the 
man’s stare. He guessed at once that 
he was one of the emissaries of Prince 
Poniatowski, who since the approach 
of the French had been trying to 
raise regiments among his country- 
men to help Napoleon, 

As Pahlen ordered him to halt he 
backed his horse into the wood, and, 
with a defiant flourish of his hand, 
disappeared among the trees. Night 
by this time had fallen, and, as the 
wood was deep, the officer knew that 
it would be useless to follow him. 

The incident diverted his thoughts. 
The girl to whom he was to be mar- 
ried that night bore the name that 
alone had power to stir the serfs 
from their apathy. If by the mercy 
of devil or saint a Mnizek joined the 
French the whole family would fall 
into disgrace, and, if the marriage 
were delayed, she would not be 
forced upon him. But how delay 
it ? Fate rode apace, and within two 
hours she would be considered his 
wife. 

Twenty minutes later he passed 


Zbc IReD Star 


9 


through the gateway leading to Count 
Mnizek’s mansion, and walked his 
horse up an avenue deep in shadows. 
Again and again he cursed the neces- 
sity that compelled him to go through 
the wedding ceremony. One loop- 
hole of escape, indeed, he was aware 
was open to him ; but if he used it 
he would have to face the wrath of 
his master and his own disgrace. 

He tried to silence his conscience 
by recalling the resolution that he 
had taken. There was a risk at- 
tached to it that placed it among the 
uncertainties of his life, for the mood 
of a girl was to settle his future. It 
was with grim satisfaction he real- 
ised this. He felt as if he had made 
atonement to his injured honour. 

Drawing rein before the great, 
rambling buildings in which the 
Mnizeks for two hundred years had 
dispensed their hospitality to other 
great nobles and had received their 
kings, he knocked at a door, and 
soon after he was admitted into the 
house. 

A servant led him across a large, 


lO 


(Tbe IReb Star 


lighted hall to a room where an old 
man in a black velvet suit was sit- 
ting, tapping his fingers impatiently 
on a table by his side. A bottle of 
wodhi with some richly cut glasses 
stood near his elbow. Two fang- 
like teeth that hung over his under- 
lip gave him an animal look ; his 
closely set eyes peered up at the 
young man as he came forward. 

It is well, Basil Vassilievitch, that 
you have obeyed my summons,” he 
said, rising to greet Pahlen. The 
times grow worse and worse,” he 
added, after he had embraced him, 
and I wish to place Countess Halka 
in safety.” 

‘‘ And pray what am I to do with 
a wife in the war ? ” said Pahlen, 
twirling his moustache and looking 
at the floor. 

‘‘You will send her into Russia, 
of course,” replied the old man. 
“ And I must remark. Count Basil, 
upon the strange reluctance you 
have shown to the marriage being 
completed. Three times I have 
wished it to take place, and you have 


XLbc IReD Star 


II 


been ready with an excuse on each 
occasion. And even now it has re- 
quired an Imperial order to make 
you keep your promise. The Tzar 
has been gracious enough to allow 
the marriage to take place in the 
Holy Catholic Church, though you 
were betrothed in the Greek, in con- 
sideration of the bride’s faith and 
the dangers of the times which have 
made it impossible for you to return 
to Russia.’’ 

His Majesty ” began Pahlen, 

still looking down, but the Count 
interrupted him. 

“ His Majesty is much interested 
in the marriage,” he said. ‘‘ I have 
a letter here from Prince Volkhonsky 
in answer to my petition to the Tzar 
that it might not be delayed. He 
says. For the sake of his late Minister 
of War^ Count Pahlen^ father of the 
bridegroom^ His Majesty is most anxious 
that this alliance should take place. As 
to the reluctance which you hint Basil 
Vassilie'vitch has shown^ I may add on 
this point that he imll incur the serious 
displeasure of the Tzar if he breaks his 


12 


^bc IRcb Star 


troth and the solemn oath he swore in 
His Majesty's presence. The warning 
cannot be stronger, young man.” 

‘‘For God’s sake get it over, 
then ! ” said Pahlen, rising to his 
feet, his sword and spurs clanking 
and jingling in the impatience of his 
movement. 

“ In the name of God, I will,” 
answered the Count, getting up 
briskly from his chair. “ Follow 
me.” 

He led the way from the room and 
across the hall, pausing suddenly in a 
long corridor to fix a curious, search- 
ing gaze on Pahlen’s face. 

“ There is danger,” he said, im- 
pressively, pointing a lean, yellow 
finger, like the leg of a crow, in the 
direction where the chapel lay. 

Pahlen could have groaned. He 
knew that well enough, without this 
old fool reminding him of it, he 
thought. But his fear and Count 
Adam Mnizek’s, he was aware, were 
most certainly not the same. He did 
not, however, show his discomposure 
as he asked — 


XLbc 1 Re& Star 


13 


“ From the French ? 

‘‘Ah ! ” cried the old man, eagerly. 
“Yes, that is it ! From the French.” 

Pahlen had not expected this. reply ; 
he had put the question as the first 
that had occurred to him. Standing 
tall and erect in his white uniform of 
the horse guards, he looked down 
with absent, uninterested eyes at the 
crooked, lean old Pole. 

“ They want me — me, a feeble old 
man near my end, to — to, ah, yes — to 
lead them. Lead them against what ? 
Ha, ha ! the knout and the rope and 
Siberia.” 

A gleam of interest flashed sud- 
denly into Pahlen's eyes. 

“ And you will ? ” he demanded, 
quickly. 

The Count grinned. “ As soon as 
I would to hell?” he replied, and 
moved on. 

But when they reached the door 
leading into the chapel he paused 
again to hint his fears, combing the 
long hairs of his white beard with his 
fingers, and stuttering in his excite- 
ment 


14 


Zbc IReD Star 


“Young man, take care of your 
bride,’' he said. “ She and I are the 
last of our name. She thinks the 
French a great race, and Napoleon 
the saviour of oppressed nations. She 
forgets that God Himself will not be 
strong enough to save us from you 
when they have recrossed the Vistula.” 

“ When they have ! ” said Pahlen, 
with cold indifference. 

The Count appeared about to speak 
again ; then, with nervous haste, 
flung the door wide open and entered 
the chapel. 

Tidings of the bridegroom’s arrival 
had been brought to the group of 
persons assembled there. The priest 
stood by the altar, and the witnesses 
— servants of the household and an 
official from the village — were already 
in their places. 

While Pahlen went slowly up the 
nave, the Count passed out by a side 
door, returning almost immediately 
with a girl veiled and in white, whom 
he led to the altar. 

The guardsman’s eyes rested stead- 
ily, even defiantly, upon her, the 


trbe IRcD Star 


15 


bride whom he had not chosen, in 
whose hands his fate was lying. The 
beams of a lamp fell on her figure, 
giving her veil a sheeny, dazzling ap- 
pearance ; it seemed to him that she 
held her head like some angel of 
judgment. 

The Count beckoned him forward, 
and he went up to her side as a man 
who knows he is doomed. She turned 
her face away as if to avoid his gaze ; 
but his heart was gnawed by anxiety 
and fear, and he had no desire to look 
at her. They appeared a handsome 
couple to the spectators. The Count- 
ess was tall and fair ; so tall, indeed, 
that her head came well above her 
companion’s shoulder, though he 
stood six feet. Pahlen was blond, 
with keen, grey-blue eyes ; and his 
manner was usually alert and cool. 
Though originally of German ex- 
traction, his family had lived for some 
generations in Russia, where they had 
filled high posts in the empire. At 
present his assurance had left him, 
and he cursed himself in his heart 
for a coward and a fool after every 


i6 


^be IReb Star 


answer he gave the priest, while a 
sense of shame seized him each time 
he heard the girl’s replies. 

He made no attempt to salute her 
when the ceremony was over. They 
stood in absolute silence by each 
other’s side, while the priest extin- 
guished the candles on the altar and 
the Count signed to the servants to 
depart. Then the old man took the 
bride’s hand and kissed her. 

Safe, imprisoned, a bride ! ” he 
said, smiling. “ Rest now in your hus- 
band’s love.” He turned to Pahlen. 

The latter’s face was set and 
wretched, and his eyes hard and 
cold. 

“ Count, may I ask you to leave us 
alone ? ” he said a strange ring in 
his voice. “ The Countess and I will 
follow you in a moment.” 

The girl stirred slightly, and her 
cousin gave Pahlen a half-apprehen- 
sive glance. 

‘‘ Certainly,” he answered. “ The 
notary and I shall wait for you in my 
own room.” 

He moved off, followed by the 


Zbc IReD Star 


17 


priest and the official. Pahlen looked 
rigidly in front of him till he heard 
the chapel door open and close again. 
Then he turned and fixed his eyes 
upon Halka who had left his side, 
and had paused by the altar before 
the brass crucifix which was half hid- 
den by the autumn violets. She 
raised her veil, and a bright colour 
rushed to her cheeks. For a full 
minute neither spoke. 

“ In the name of God, how shall I 
begin ! ” thought Pahlen ; then he 
rushed on his fate. 

‘‘ Countess Halka,’' he said, and 
his voice was curiously even and 
hard, “ I am about to throw myself 
on your mercy. I have a confession 
to make. You will think me both a 

coward and a blackguard. I ” 

he paused as her eyes turned upon 

him with a look of surprise. I 

we have been through a ceremony 
which is a farce. It does not make 
you my wife because — ” for a mo- 
ment he hesitated — “ because I am 
already married.” His eyes fell at 
the words before hers. 


i8 


Zbc IReD Stat 


One of those tense pauses followed 
that are a whole Day of Judgment to 
a man. He had looked death coolly 
enough in the face during the cam- 
paign in Austria the previous year ; 
but the eyes of his own shame were 
harder things just then than death 
to meet. 

It was broken by Halka turning to 
the altar. Oh, this is the sign ! '' 
she exclaimed, speaking as if to a 
third person, her face suddenly lit 
up and exalted ; and she knelt for a 
second. 

Her words relaxed the tension he 
was suffering. He raised his head ; 
he felt that he grasped his manhood 
again, and that a defence was even 
possible. 

‘‘ It must seem to you that my 
honour is dead,’’ he said in the same 
hard, even tone as she rose. “ I had 
not the courage to face my ruin. I 
was afraid.” 

In an instant the enthusiastic light 
in her eyes died out, and a look of 
insulted womanhood took its place. 


^be IReb Star 


19 


“ And you dared to mock me, 
sir ! ” 

A flush of shame and anger rushed 
to his face. For a moment he felt 
that her contempt was worse than 
the Tzar’s wrath. He even forgot 
that his fate was still uncertain, and 
that in a few days he might be 
arrested. 

“ It would have been my ruin ! ” 
he exclaimed, almost passionately. 

Before you judge me hear my story. 
God knows I have been forced into 
this position. I did not choose it.” 

‘‘And I by obeying my father’s 
wish ! Oh, the dead can give hard 
commands ! ” 

A deep silence followed ; the 
thought of the oath he had sworn 
before the Tzar to marry the girl 
seemed to clutch at Pahlen’s throat 
like a hand. In Halka’s heart sur- 
prise and indignation had welled up, 
and a burning sense of insult seized 
her. 

Presently he went on, keenly aware 
that every word he uttered must 


20 


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make his position worse. His eyes 
never left the ground. 

‘‘It was my father’s wish that I 
should marry you,” he said, gloomily. 
“ Life was a pleasant enough game 
for me. I did not care about the 
future. To put it frankly, if brutally, 
he wanted an heiress for his son. It 
was easy enough to swear an oath in 
the Tzar’s presence. Then — then 
I met a woman who pleased my 
senses.” 

He paused, but the girl’s voice rang 
out like a cry of pain — pain at her 
own humiliation. 

“ Go on, sir ! — and this woman 
who pleased your senses ? ” 

“ My father was dead ” — the dark 
red colour rushed over his face 
again — “ I thought myself my own 
master. I married her privately in 
the country.” 

“ That must have been the time 
I cried my eyes out that I had been 
betrothed to you ! I did it every 
night. I — I did not want to marry 
you ! ” 

“ Our madness did not last long,” 


Zhc 1Re& Star 


21 


said Pahlen, bitterly. In a month 
we were sick of each other.'' 

“ And then you planned this in- 
sult ! " 

“ Before God, no. I held back till 
there was no escape." 

She gave a little moan of anger 
and shame, and turned her eyes on 
the altar. 

“ May I go on ? " he asked in a 
hard, shamed tone. 

She made him no answer, and he 
gathered himself together for the last 
of his confession. 

This — this woman and I knew 
what fools we had been. We under- 
stood it most completely — my God ! 
yes. Then we parted. Neither of 
us was to betray the other. I am 
not doing it now ; I keep her name." 

She flashed round upon him. Oh, 
I do not doubt your honour ! Are 
you trying to excuse yourself to 
me? " 

“ No," he replied, let me go on. 
I am a coward, but not the black- 
guard you think." 

Her face had grown white and 


22 


trbe IReb Star 


contemptuous ; she turned her head 
aside. 

I was ordered to Austria. The 
Tzar spoke to me at the Winter Pal- 
ace a few hours before I left for the 
front. He spoke of our marriage. 
Then I went to Prince Volkhonsky 
and entreated him to help me. I 
did not tell him I was already mar- 
ried. I have no excuse to offer. I 
was simply afraid. He assured me 
that the Tzar has such a regard for 
personal honour that if I broke my 
troth and the oath I had made to 
my father I should be ruined. I 
have had to choose between that and 
the chance that you might not be- 
tray me. I had no right to expect 
your mercy, but I was desperate.’' 

She made no sign of having heard 
him, and he went on. 

I meant to keep my oath — I 
never meant to break it — but the 
devil and a face were too strong 
for me,” his voice broke off ab- 
ruptly. 

“ And do you think I wanted you 
to keep it ? ” The proud note in the 


Zbc IReD Star 


23 


girFs voice could not quite disguise 
the ring of wounded dignity. No ! 
I have a love too ; but mine will last 
now and for ever. It is strong as 
eternity. It has my heart, my soul, 
my being ! '' She put her hand over 
her eyes for a few seconds ; her 
bright gaze was clouded by tears. 

The scene was so acutely painful 
that Pahlen hastened to end it. 
Would she spare him or not was the 
thought uppermost in his mind. But 
mingled with his own strong per- 
sonal fears was a measure of sym- 
pathy for her. He had placed her 
in this position ; the fault was his. 

I would say on my honour, only 
you think I have none,’' he said, 
with feeling, ‘‘ that I tried to pre- 
vent this moment. I made every 
excuse I could — every excuse but 
my marriage. Condemn me ! Yes. 
I am a coward. I like life. I do 
not wish to be blotted out socially, 
have every prospect ruined. I held 
back. I made a dozen plans. But 
I was forced on. Count Adam peti- 
tioned the Tzar. I had to come — 


24 


^be IReb Star 


and — and now we stand here sup- 
posed man and wife/’ 

But while he was speaking a change 
had come over Halka. A weighty 
thought in her little head had begun 
to overpower her indignation. Un- 
der its influence the insult pressed 
less sharply, and even began to sink 
out of sight. Her own words had 
been the spring whence this feeling 
had arisen. 

Pahlen stood waiting for his sen- 
tence, unable — for the very unman- 
liness of the act — to plead for mercy. 
Indifferent to his suspense, she sud- 
denly drew her wedding ring from 
her finger and threw it towards him. 
The blood rushed again to his face 
as the hoop spun for a moment at 
his feet. 

“ Am I pardoned ? ” he asked, 
hoarsely, as he gave her back her 
own. 

She started and coloured, but her 
new mood looked from her eyes. 
The future seemed more actual and 
near to her than the present. Then 
it flashed across her that he was in 


^be IReb Star 


25 


her power. What a chance ! she 
thought. ‘‘ I could frighten him and 
punish him for having made me a 
fool — only I have not time.'* 

Are you afraid ? ” she said aloud, 
steadily, and he winced under her 
tone as under a red-hot knife. “ You 
need not be. I shall spare you be- 
cause I think you are too weak and 
cowardly to be remembered. I shall 
forget you. You are not even worth 
hating. You, who for your own safety 
could hurt and shame a woman ! ” 

He stood silent, but raised one 
hand and nervously twitched his 
moustache. 

I shall even keep your secret,’' 
she went on, with careless contempt, 
because — because you might have 
kept it from me." 

Only then he fully knew what his 
fear had been in the sense of relief 
that mingled with his shame. He 
had meant to kill himself if she had 
betrayed him. 

Thank you for that mercy," he 
answered, his eyes still on the ground. 
“ But you are not safe ! " she con- 


26 


^Tbe IReb Star 


tinued, in the same cutting tone. 
“ One woman may, but two never 
could keep a secret."’ 

“ The other married last month,” 
was all Pahlen could utter. 

“ And yet she failed to please your 
mind ! ” The girl paused, a smile 
of disdain on her lips. The silence 
lasted a minute, and her eyes sud- 
senly grew reflective. Her mood 
again changed. Pahlen, who ex- 
pected another burst of scorn, heard 
instead a voice that had something of 
the hesitation and shyness of a child’s. 

“You have hurt me and insulted 
me,” she said ; “ will you grant me a 
favour ? ” 

“ You have only to command me,” 
he murmured. 

“ My cousin must think we are 
married. I must leave here with you 
to-night.” 

He looked up for the first time 
since his confession, and saw the 
colour mount her face. This was 
certainly the arrangement he most 
wished for, but that she should pro- 
pose it filled him with surprise. 


tibe IReb Star 


27 


“ It is your desire that the Count 
should think you are my wife ? ’’ he 
said. 

“ Yes/' she answered, haughtily, 
her eyes falling before his. “ It will 
suit you too, sir, I should imagine. 
We shall part a few leagues from 
here." 

I shall order my horse at once," 
he replied. 

‘‘You must speak to my cousin," 
she continued, and her tone became 
again hesitating and diffident. The 
bright colour burnt on her cheeks. 
“ You must tell him that to be nearer 
the army you mean to pass your 
honeymoon at Veseloff. He will un- 
derstand." 

“ And after that ? " 

“ And after that, that you will send 
me into Russia. I shall send a packet 
of letters to your steward, and you 
must instruct him to forward them to 
my cousin at stated intervals." 

“ I cannot thank you enough for 
this favour," said Pahlen. Her eyes 
flashed at him for a moment. The 
scorn in an instant withered his re- 


28 


^bc IRcb star 


turning self-assurance. Then, with- 
out another word, she left the altar, 
bringing the scent of the violets with 
her, and passed him in contemptu- 
ous silence. 

But he was immensely relieved. 
She had proposed herself what he had 
not dared to ask, and was willing to 
carry on the farce. Considerable 
surprise, however, mingled with his 
satisfaction. What was her reason ? 
Not mercy for him, he was sure. He 
waited a few minutes after she had 
disappeared before he left the chapel, 
and returned to Count Adam’s room. 
The latter was bending over the 
register with the priest and notary. 
He looked up and asked for Halka. 

She has gone to change her 
dress,” replied Pahlen, resting his 
hand on the hilt of his sword and 
glancing at the floor. “ I shall ask 
you to order the carriage at once. 
Count Adam.” 

‘‘ The carriage ! ” was the sur- 
prised answer. “ Surely you have 
leave and can stay here to-night ? ” 

“ It is impossible,” said Pahlen, 


Zhc IReD Star 


29 


briefly ; then he added listlessly, as 
if repeating a lesson, ‘‘ We intend to 
spend our honeymoon at Veseloff, as 
it is nearer the cantonments. After 
that my wife goes into Russia.’' 

The Count looked keenly at him. 
He had taken care of his cousin’s 
child for years while that cousin fol- 
lowed his own risky career at the 
Russian Court. Now he was dead, 
and Count Adam secretly believed 
in hell, where perhaps he was better 
able to communicate with the earth 
than if he had been in heaven. It 
was very necessary, therefore, that 
all his wishes about his daughter 
should be carried out. Count Adam 
being old and nervous and in dread 
of devils, had trembled for Halka, 
having special reasons for doing so. 

As he walked up and down the 
room stroking his beard, tapping the 
floor with his stick, and muttering 
to himself, Pahlen thought him half 
mad, and his impatience to end the 
scene increased. The guardsman felt 
so poor a hero, that he could in his 
anger and shame have leapt on his 


30 


Zbc 1Re^ Star 


horse there and then and galloped 
away from the house. 

After some minutes had passed, 
a servant flung the door open, and 
Halka entered in a travelling dress. 
Pahlen gave her one brief glance as 
she came across the threshold. Her 
eyes looked bright and starry, and 
her face even radiant. Her gaze, 
however, which seemed to take in 
everything else in the room, avoided 
him ; he felt himself entirely ignored. 
Count Adam's voice fell on his ear 
bidding him sign, and he instantly 
obeyed. This was the completion 
of his crime ; he had now put him- 
self in the power of the law. 

Halka took the pen with a sudden 
access of colour. Pahlen turned his 
head aside : when he glanced at the 
book again her signature lay under 
his. 

A glass of fiery wodhi was handed 
to him, and he drank it as he would 
have taken brimstone at the moment, 
though he hated the spirit. Then 
the old Count took Halka’s hand 
and looked at her with tenderness. 


XLbc Star 


31 


“You little soul,” he said, with a 
quaver, remembering his duty and 
the devils, “ may God keep you.” 

She kissed him and laughed. 
Pahlen noted that there was genuine 
gaiety in her manner. 

“Yes, God shall keep me,” she 
replied, with sudden gravity. 

“ And you spend the night at 
Veseloff.” 

She stroked his hand, turning 
slightly aside. 

“Yes,” said Pahlen, and the cool- 
ness of his own voice rather surprised 
him. 

“ Basil Vassilievitch,” remarked 
Count Adam, “ do not stay long at 
Veseloff. It is too near the Vistula.” 

“We intend to remain — ” began 
the young man, to whom this time 
of waiting was like eternity. 

“ Only a few days,” put in Halka, 
swiftly, her face still averted. 

“Yes, only a few days,” he re- 
peated. 

Just then the carriage was an- 
nounced, and he offered her his 
hand. The old Count would have 


32 


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led them to supper, but neither was 
in a mood to eat. They went into 
the hall, where the servants had 
gathered to see the bride and bride- 
groom depart. Halka’s maid stood 
cloaked and hooded in the portico. 
All present knew that the fears of 
the old Count, together with the 
war, had caused this hurried private 
wedding. 

Pahlen led Halka to the carriage 
and stood hesitating by the door. 
Her voice distinct and icy fell on 
his ear. 

‘‘Ride, Basil Vassilievitch ! This 
carriage is not large enough for you 
and me,” she said in French. 

The huge old coach could have 
held a family, but he was extremely 
relieved, and turned to his horse. 
The Count beckoned to him as he 
was about to mount. 

“ Beware of the French ! ” the old 
man whispered, pulling Pahlen’s 
sleeve. 

The latter stared at him ; the 
Count drew him nearer and em- 
braced him. A moment later he 


trbc TReD Star 


33 


left the old man still muttering his 
enigmatical warning, and sprang 
across his horse. 

Then the strange bridal procession 
started, the Count watching them 
from the portico, a black, bent figure 
against the flood of light. 

Pahlen rode on, his fancy turning 
the old-fashioned lumbering coach 
into a tumbril, only he was the 
victim, not Halka. The chaff and 
kindly wishes of his comrades rushed 
across his mind, and he cursed him- 
self and the accident of the night. 
Yet his worst fears were removed. 
Halka knew all, and was still kind 
enough to let the world think that 
she was his wife. 

The stars were out and a bright 
hunter’s moon. They and the lamps 
showed the dangers of the road, 
which were so numerous that it was 
well on in the night before the party 
drew near the end of their journey. 

After rolling through a wood where 
the branches hung over the track, 
blue-black as the lamps fell on them, 
the carriage drew up before a large 

3 


34 


ttbe IReb Stat 


wooden house, from the lower win- 
dows of which lights were shining. 
Someone touched Pahlen's knee as 
he sat still in his saddle and scanned 
the building. He looked down and 
saw Halka’s maid. 

‘‘You must come in, excellency,” 
she said, and moved away. 

He wondered why ; then con- 
cluded that appearance had still to 
be kept up before the servants, and 
alighted. As his feet touched the 
ground a man came up and took his 
horse. 

He saw Halka leave the carriage, 
and, followed by her maid, enter the 
house. A broad flood of light lay 
across the leaf-strewn grass. He 
walked along it, feeling himself sud- 
denly illuminated, and went into 
the hall. Here he caught the last 
glimpse of the girPs skirt as she 
disappeared through a distant door. 
The place was empty ; he sat down 
and stroked his moustache, waiting 
for further orders from his supposed 
bride. 

In the silence he heard the car- 


XLhc Star 


35 


riage drive away. This surprised 
him a little. Why should the horses 
be sent back at so late an hour, and 
when the roads were so bad ? At 
last, as no one appeared, he rose and 
was about to retire when a door 
opened and the maid came towards 
him. 

“ You can go now, highness,’’ she 
said, with gravity. 

What house is this ? ” asked 
Pahlen. 

An ancient mansion of the 
Mnizeks,” replied the woman. ‘‘ The 
Countess bids me tell you,” she 
added, ‘‘ that she is going into Ga- 
licia.” 

Pahlen turned on his heel much 
pleased at this news. Count Adam 
would certainly think he had sent 
the girl to Russia, if she went to 
the estate her father had left her 
in Austrian Poland. As he left the 
house a faint peal of laughter 
followed him ; the hall door was 
slammed to noisily, and the stream 
of light suddenly blotted out. He 
might have fallen into a pool of ink, 


36 


^be IReb Star 


the darkness was so deep. Then 
his pupils widened, and he caught 
a gleam of moonshine on a branch. 
The rattle of steel and an impatient 
hoof told him where his horse stood, 
the man had gone, and the bridle 
was hitched to a tree. 

Springing into the saddle he rode 
off with lightened spirits, but he had 
not ridden far when it spun round 
and he was thrown to the ground. 
The girth had given way, and he 
found it had been cut through on 
one side to within an inch of the 
opposite edge. At that moment the 
face of the man who had taken the 
horse flashed into his mind, and he 
knew that he had seen it before. 
Why had he not recognised it at the 
right moment ! Why had he been 
such a fool ! 

It is that infernal emissary,’' he 
said to himself aloud. “ But what 
is he doing in that house ? ” 


S o many of these emissaries were 
going through Russian Poland 
that Pahlen knew it was his duty to 
report the matter to the Starosta of 
the district and to General Benning- 
sen. But private reasons led him to 
e/ade both duties. The peasants 
would not stir unless one of their 
hereditary lords led them. Count 
Adam was not likely to do so, and 
he was the only male representative 
of the Mnizeks now alive. 

Four days after the incident he 
chanced to be out with a reconnoi- 
tering party, and rode into the wood 
where he had parted from Halka. 
The grass in front of the house bore 
the marks of many feet. No one 
answered to the soldier’s summons, 
and the house was found to be de- 
serted. Pahlen’s sense of relief 
increased as he realised that the girl 
37 


38 


^bc ^Re^ Star 


had really gone. For a time she had 
passed out of his life. There was an 
hour coming he was aware when the 
Tzar and Count Adam and his friends 
would ask where was his wife ; but 
between that hour and the present 
lay the whole campaign. His spirits 
became once more gay ; shame and 
fear left him ; he felt life had still 
its splendid possibilities. 

The rapid advance of the French 
now set the Russian army in motion. 
The beginning of winter was spent 
in a series of actions which drove 
Benningsen from his position on the 
Narew and brought the enemy as far 
as Pultush. The country over which 
the forces were passing was the very 
worst for the transport of troops. 
Great plains turned into mud by the 
frequent rains, or huge forests spread 
on all sides. The lakes and rivers 
were swollen and rapid, supplies 
were bad, and the weather infamous. 

While the two armies were thus 
moving, the one pursuing, the other 
retreating, Pahlen, now on Benning- 
sen's staff, was ordered to carry a 


Ube IReb Star 


39 


despatch to General Buxhaewden, 
who was unable to unite his division 
with the main body of the Russians. 
The Generals were not on friendly 
terms, and the duty was rather a 
delicate one ; added to which the 
armies were not only divided by lakes 
and forests, but the enemy’s scouts 
covered the country. 

A wind keen as a knife drove the 
sleet in his face as he set off on his 
ride. He had put the despatch under 
the breast of his tunic, and he wore 
a thick vourka^ or hooded cloak. Over 
his uniform. There was no road to 
follow. Men and horses and guns 
had been bogged in the plains ; and 
the mud rose to his charger’s fetlock 
as he galloped along. The short 
winter day of Northern Poland was 
closing in ; the sun set by two in the 
afternoon. A great lake spread to 
the horizon on one side, and beyond 
this was a forest through which he 
had to pass. Overhead a grey sky 
foretold that the sleet was about to 
change to snow. 

He was well-armed, keen-eyed, and 


40 


XLbc IReD Star 


alert ; and as he galloped along by 
the bank of the lake he felt he was 
racing the light. If the darkness 
overtook him it would be impossible 
to find a path through the forest, and 
to keep on the outskirts of the trees 
would lengthen his journey. 

The sun was hidden, but he could 
tell where it drew to the horizon by 
a few white rays that pierced the 
slate-coloured clouds. The lake had 
risen into waves, and the wind swept 
through the sedges and withered 
reeds. The mud was beginning to 
harden under its bitter breath, and 
the ground grew easier to traverse. 
He had just thrown a glance over his 
shoulder to see how near the shafts 
of light had sunk to the rim of the 
lake, when his horse suddenly stum- 
bled and fell forward. 

Pahlen was hurled on the bank, 
but sprang up the next second un- 
hurt. By means of voice and reins 
he got the animal on his feet. A 
brief examination showed that it had 
trodden on the broken point of a 
lance and was lamed for life. 


XLbc IReD Star 


41 


The sun had won the race, and 
Pahlen looked towards the forest. He 
was some versts from the nearest 
town, and he doubted whether a 
horse could be found there, as the 
inhabitants had fled before the ap- 
proach of the armies. 

A large farmhouse stood at some 
distance from the lake. Taking his 
pistols from the holsters, he walked 
towards it. From its size and numer- 
ous outbuildings it had evidently been 
the home of some well-to-do small 
landowner ; but the glimpse he caught 
of the empty haggart told him that 
Tolstoy’s Cossacks had been there. 

The door was secured, and the 
place looked deserted. But he 
knocked till a shrill, timorous voice 
called from within to know who de- 
manded admittance. 

“ In the name of the Tzar ! ” said 
Pahlen ; and, after a brief pause, the 
bolts shot back. A lean-faced man, 
in a dark caftan and with a fur cape 
over his shoulder, looked out. 

‘‘ What is it, your nobility ? ” he 
asked, abjectly. 


42 


^bc IRe^ Star 


‘‘ I wish for a horse/’ 

‘‘ A horse, excellency ! Before 
God, Tolstoy ate them all up.” 

Pahlen pushed past the man, and 
entered the kitchen. The peasant 
stared blankly at him. 

Find me one at once,” he said, 
authoritatively. ‘‘ Where is the near- 
est village ? ” 

The imperious tone refreshed the 
peasant’s memory. 

“ A farmer living some versts to 
the south owned several horses,” he 
said ; “ would his excellency go 
thither ? ” 

As this was a direction which 
would lead him out of his way, 
Pahlen ordered the man to proceed 
to the farm at once and return with 
a horse, promising him gold if he 
came back quickly. 

The kitchen stove was .half broken, 
and Pahlen followed the man up a 
narrow stair to a room Avhich con- 
tained some half-smashed furniture. 
A fire blazed in the stove, casting a 
glow on a door at the other end of 
the apartment. The peasant ex- 


XLbc IRe^) Star 


43 


plained that he used this room as it 
faced the lake, and the robbers in 
the forest to the rear could not see 
the light or notice the smoke. These 
robbers, he added, were deserters 
from the Grand Army, who robbed 
and murdered the peasants and any 
straggler from either force that fell 
into their hands with a cool indiffer- 
ence to their nationality. 

Pahlen went to the window, a 
narrow opening in the timber walls, 
as soon as the man left the room. 
The sleet had changed to snow, 
coming down in fine, powdery flakes. 
The form of his horse loomed vaguely 
through the mingled whiteness and 
gloom as it stood by the slate-grey 
lake, turning its head now and then 
and whinnying with fear. The sight 
made him swing round, and hasten- 
ing down the stair, he left the 
house. 

The horse neighed gladly as it saw 
him, and limped forward. He re- 
moved the saddle and bridle, and, 
with a sharp pain of regret and pity, 
fired a charge through its head. 


44 


Ube IRcb Star 


Then he took up the saddlery and 
went back to the farm. 

During this incident the peasant 
had lingered in a dark corner of the 
kitchen. He now stole to the door 
and shivered as he looked at the un- 
inviting scene. The village was four 
versts away, and night had all but 
fallen. But the inborn abject fear 
of the serf for those in power made 
him afraid to disobey Pahlen, though 
weeks of solitude and terror since 
Tolstoy had hung his master on sus- 
picion of being a spy, had roused a 
ferocity in his nature, and he would 
gladly have cut the Russian’s throat 
if he had dared. 

Cursing him under his breath, he 
went out, and had only gone a few 
yards when he drew up suddenly, 
and his eyes raked the gloom. By 
the rattle of steel and the tramp of 
hoofs he knew a small body of cav- 
alry was approaching, and was seized 
with fear lest the men were Cos- 
sacks. 

In a few minutes he was able to 
make out the horsemen, and as he 


Zbc IReD Star 


45 


recognised the uniform he said to 
himself that Cherni Bog^ the black 
god, had delivered the Russian into 
the hands of his foes. He sprang 
forward, and held up his hand. 

The jingle and clank almost in- 
stantly ceased, and the officer in 
command ordered him to approach. 
The men sat still and silent on their 
horses, the impatient champing of a 
bit alone breaking the silence as the 
Pole stole up. 

“ Highness,’* he said, clutching in 
his excitement at the officer’s bridle- 
reins, there is a Russian officer with 
despatches waiting for a horse in my 
house.” 

The lieutenant’s face lit up. “ Here 
is something better than supplies,” 
he remarked to his sergeant. “ Look 
here, my lads, we ’ll take this Rus- 
sian.” 

“ As your highness wishes,” an- 
swered the sergeant ; and the whole 
party wheeled and rode towards the 
house. 

“ Where is he ? ” inquired the 
officer, as he dismounted. 


46 


^be IReb Star 


In the room over the kitchen. 
He is armed, excellency.” 

The lieutenant smiled. He placed 
three of his men in the kitchen, and, 
ordering a fourth man to accompany 
him, went up the stair. He and his 
five troopers wore the uniform of a 
Polish lancer regiment lately raised 
and now attached to Davout's corps. 

‘‘ This is splendid ! ” he thought 
as he stole up, his naked sword in 
his hand. As interesting as a game, 
and yet real war.” 

‘‘ Wait here,” he said aloud to his 
companion when they got on the 
landing ; and, opening the door 
boldly, walked into the room. 

It was empty, but Pahlen’s pistols 
lay on the table. In a second they 
were in the boy’s hands. The door 
at the other end of the room was 
open, and he heard spurred feet 
crossing the floor. A thrill of nerv- 
ous excitement ran through his 
body, and his hand tightened on his 
weapons. 

Almost immediately afterwards 
Pahlen appeared in the doorway. 


ttbe 1Reb Star 


47 


The lieutenant was standing in the 
glow of the firelight just as it danced 
across the boards. As the guards- 
man recognised his cap and jacket 
his sword rang out. 

Yield, sir ! cried the boy, a 
thrill of excitement again seizing him. 
‘‘Yield ! my men are in the house.’' 

For reply Pahlen rushed upon him. 
The steel flashed like a line of fire as 
it caught the glow and swung above 
the lancer’s head. The boy sprang 
deftly aside, and the sword cut the 
air. Drawing up at the other side of 
the table, he looked with a smile at 
Pahlen. The pistols were still in his 
hands, but he did not fire. 

In the brief tense pause that fol- 
lowed the soldier without ran into 
the room. Pahlen turned upon him 
as the bigger and stronger man. He 
carried his lance, and prodded with 
it till Pahlen closed upon him. At 
such near quarters the lance was use- 
less, and a sword-thrust in his side 
sent him reeling to the floor. 

The other lancers had clattered up 
the stair, and, bursting into the room, 


48 


Zbc IReD Star 


hurled themselves upon Pahlen. 
Their officer, who had watched the 
fight without moving, ordered them 
to lower their weapons. He had to 
shout his order twice before they 
obeyed. Then they fell back sul- 
lenly. 

“ Take away his sword ! he cried 
out ; take it away ! Do you yield, 
sir ? 

Count Basil bowed. 

Then give me your despatch ! 
cried the boy in a clear, treble voice. 

Pahlen glanced at his captor, but 
the uncertain light prevented him 
from distinctly seeing his face. The 
quick breathing of the lancers 
sounded loud in the pause as they 
stood grouped together touched here 
and there by a line of firelight. The 
wounded man lay farther back 
among the shadows ; his lips moaned. 

“ Oh, look to Tzinski ! suddenly 
exclaimed the officer, as Pahlen be- 
gan to unfasten his cloak. 

One of the men bent over the 
soldier. 

“Is he dead?” demanded the 


^be IReb Star 


49 


lieutenant, in a sharp tone of pity 
and fear. 

‘‘ He lives yet, excellency, but is 
bleeding fast.’' 

The boy tore off his sash and flung 
it to the man. Then he turned im- 
patiently to Pahlen. 

“ Quick, sir ! The despatch ! ” 

Pahlen drew the paper slowly and 
as if reluctantly from his breast. He 
made a step forward as if to give it 
to the boy, but suddenly, with fine 
audacity, flung it on the burning 
wood, stamping into the flame with 
his foot. 

It was the work of a second, and 
the next instant a lance pierced his 
shoulder. The boy ran out of the 
gloom up to the fire, and tried to 
snatch the despatch from the flames. 
But Pahlen had done his work well, 
and a yellow tongue leaped up the 
stove. 

Oh, wretch ! ” he cried. Now 
we shall not know your plan ! ” 

“ Shall I kill him, highness ? ” 
asked the sergeant, fiercely. 

The officer sprang round. 


50 


^be IRcb Star 


“ No, no ! ” he exclaimed. ‘‘ Don’t 
dare touch him ! ” 

But Pahlen expected his end. The 
Polish lancers were raw and undisci- 
plined levies ; and he had seen that 
these men yielded reluctant obedi- 
ence. In the pause a sharp pulse of 
pain shot through his shoulder ; the 
blood was running fast down his 
cloak. 

‘‘ You dared to play this trick ! ” 
cried the lieutenant; ‘‘You deserve 
to lose your life ! Davout would 
have shot you for this ! ” 

His tone of defiance struck Pahlen 
with a sense of familiarity. He had 
heard that ring of scorn somewhere 
before. The lad’s face looked as 
Diana’s might have done when she 
set her hounds on Actaeon. His eyes 
were as blue, and at the moment 
as pitiless, as those of the insulted 
goddess herself. 

But his slight interest passed as 
the pain stabbed him again. Press- 
ing a silk handkerchief to the wound, 
he stood silent while the boy went 


XLbc IReD Star 


51 


What is your name ? he de- 
manded. 

The next instant the lieutenant 
stepped back out of the light, and 
his eyes shot towards the door. His 
sergeant glanced at him in surprised 
delight, for it was a fine thing for 
Poniatowski's Lancers to have cap- 
tured one of the Tzar’s horse guards- 
men. Before any one, however, 
spoke, the peasant came into the 
room with a rope in his hand. His 
lips had widened into a grin. 

There is a strong beam in the 
kitchen, highness,” he said, eagerly, 
‘‘ and this hemp has been round a 
man’s throat. Oh, your highness 
may believe me ! Tolstoy hung my 
master on it.” 

The boy waved him back. “ The 
officer has yielded, and I spare his 
life,” he said, quickly, the imperious 
note gone from his tone. “ Attend to 
the wounded lancer,” he added, and 
turned towards the door, keeping his 
face averted from Phalen. 

“ What about the prisoner, sir ? ” 
asked the sergeant. 


52 


ITbe IReb Star 


“ Oh, he ! replied the lieutenant, 
as if he had forgotten Phalen. “Yes, 
keep him here to-night. Wellenski 
and Borisoff, remain as guard, and 
take him to the nearest outpost to- 
morrow. Sergeant, you and Lobenki 
follow me.’' 

“To ride back to-night, excel- 
lency ? ” 

“ Yes. Get the horses.” 

“ Our comrades won’t welcome us, 
excellency, if we come back empty- 
handed. Their stomachs are long and 
empty.” 

“ And also, your nobility,” put in 
the peasant, drawing part of the rope 
backward and forward in his hand, 
“ the snow is falling so heavily that 
you will ride into the lake or lose 
yourselves in the forests, where you 
will find plenty of wolves and de- 
serters.” 

The boy made no reply, and sign- 
ing to the sergeant, left the room. 
An icy wind beat the snowflakes in 
his face as he opened the kitchen 
door and went out into the night. 
The sergeant came behind him, and 


Zbc IReD Star 


53 


bending their heads before the blast, 
they tried to make their way to the 
stables. 

Touching walls and stumbling over 
logs of wood, they groped their way 
along, the snow whipping their faces, 
their eyes blinded and half shut. The 
lieutenant paused when they had 
gone a few yards. All before him 
was a darkness in which not even 
the vaguest outline of the lake or for- 
est could be seen, and around him a 
silence broken by the piping of the 
wind and the snarls of the wolves as 
they fought over the body of the 
horse. Their cries sounded as if dev- 
ils were saying grace for the food 
lying on a dozen battlefields. 

“ It 's no use, excellency,’' said the 
sergeant. ‘‘ The armies themselves 
halt to-night.” 

“ Then I must have another room,” 
returned the boy, which seemed an 
irrelevant answer. 

Guided by the light from the open 
door, they made their way back to 
the kitchen. The snowflakes danced 
and fell like tiny spirits of the storm 


54 


tibe IReb Star 


in the yellow ray that pierced the 
night for a few yards. The sergeant 
shut the door noisily to as they got 
into shelter, and shook the snow from 
his shoulders. Then he seized a 
bundle of wood, and went to help 
the peasant light the fire in the 
stove. 

The boy watched them for a few 
minutes, his face red with cold. 

‘‘ Here, you fellow ! ” he called 
out suddenly. Light a fire in some 
other room for me.’' 

Your excellency shall be obeyed,” 
answered the peasant, rising from his 
knees and taking up the rope. 

He led the way up the stair, but 
as he laid his hand on the door open- 
ing into the room in which Phalen 
had been captured, the lieutenant 
drew back with a gesture like alarm. 

“ Not there ! ” he said, imperiously 

‘‘ We shall only pass through, high- 
ness. The room lies behind it.” 

‘‘ Is there a light within ? ” 

“ The firelight alone,” answered 
the man. 

The boy put his cloak up to his 


^be IRcb Star 


55 


face and the guide opened the door. 
Pahlen had sunk upon a chair, and 
did not look up. As the lieutenant’s 
eyes fell on his own wounded trooper, 
he swerved round and went towards 
him. Bending over the man, he 
spoke a few words and examined his 
wound. Then, with the help of a 
lancer, he bound it up with some of 
the linen the peasant had brought. 
As soon as this was done, the men 
carried their comrade down stairs. 

This way, your nobility,” said 
the peasant, as they moved off. And 
he trod like a cat across the floor, 
dragging the rope behind him. Pah- 
len did not raise his head, and the 
boy hurried by so fast that his feet 
caught at the door in the long, grey 
thing that trailed like a snake on the 
boards. 

‘‘ Oh, highness, that is the hanged 
man clutching at your feet,” observed 
the peasant, complacently. “ They 
say the dead like revenge as well as 
the living, and he wants you to hang 
this gentleman.” 

“ Silence !” replied the lieutenant. 


56 


ITbe IReb Star 


angrily, and shook his feet free with 
a look of disgust. 

The second room was in complete 
darkness, and the soft swish of the 
snow could be heard against a small 
window high up in the wall. The 
Pole, suddenly remembering that he 
had not brought a light, returned to 
the outer room, leaving the door 
open. The lad could see the fire- 
light shining on the scarlet stains on 
the floor and flickering on Pahlen’s 
figure. He shuddered and turned 
his back on the sight, and, going 
further into the room, groped his 
way along by the wall. 

The footsteps of the Pole rang out 
on each step as he went down stairs, 
as if he were marking time. The 
boy listened and counted till the man 
reached the bottom. Then he thought 
he heard the drip from Pahlen’s 
wound, till the fancy became unen- 
durable. He strained his ears, and 
dared not look round. Then the 
wish to see if he were really bleed- 
ing to death became stronger than 
he could control. He turned with 


trbe IReb Star 


57 


both hands stretched out as if to 
shut the door, but some other power 
sent him across the threshold and 
into the room. 

Pahlen looked up, and the boy 
seized what was left of the linen. 

“ If you will sit with your back to 
the light,” he said, almost defiantly, 
I will attend to your wound.” 

His tone struck Pahlen as trucu- 
lent, but as he had lost a great deal 
of blood, he was not in a mood to 
quarrel with the boy. He obeyed, 
and the lieutenant drew near, and 
scarcely seemed to breathe as he 
touched him lightly with his hands. 
When he had bound up the wound 
he drew back, shaking his fingers 
free from the blood with almost an 
air of disdain. 

‘‘ It is an enemy's blood, I know,” 
said Pahlen. 

“Yes, that is true,” replied the 
boy, with some vehemence. 

“ Still, you have saved my life,” 
continued Pahlen. “ Thank you. You 
have hands like a girl.” 

“ They are strong enough to use a 


58 


(Tbe IReb Star 


sword/' was the defiant answer ; but 
the boy had blushed, and he turned 
rapidly away. 

Five minutes later the peasant en- 
tered the inner room, bringing a light 
and firewood, and saw the boy stand- 
ing under the little window with his 
drawn sword held crosswise in his 
hands, and looking as if he defied 
the whole world to doubt his man- 
hood. 

There 's warmth and light, high- 
ness," remarked the man, and I 
will get you food. Must I feed the 
prisoner ? My master’s ghost drags 
on the rope. Well, God is great. 
May a battle-field and a wolf’s caress 
be his end.’’ 


III. 


T owards midnight Pahlen lay 
down on the boards. Though 
no guard was set to watch him, es- 
cape was practically impossible. The 
lancers occupied the kitchen, and 
their officer was stationed in the in- 
ner room. The window was small 
and secured. Even if he could get 
out of the house his chance of reach- 
ing either camp of the Russians alive 
was slight without horse or arms. 

The pain of his wound kept him 
long awake. The voices and songs 
of the lancers came for some time 
through the rafters to his ears. He 
hoped the wodhi was going round, 
and that the men would still be 
drunk in the morning. After a while 
the noise died away, and silence 
finally fell on the house. Then to 
the music of the wolves he sank into 
oblivion too. 


59 


6o 


^Tbe IReb Star 


Daylight was creeping into the 
room when he awoke. He had had 
a singularly vivid dream ; Halka 
and he had met on a battle-field. 
He had no wish to remember her 
even in his sleep, and he awoke with 
an unpleasant impression. 

His wound had stiffened, and he 
could only use his right arm with 
difficulty. The sound of loud voices 
had struck on his ears the moment of 
waking, and for a minute he believed 
his hope was confirmed, and that the 
men were drunk. A look of resolu- 
tion sprang into his eyes at the 
thought. As he listened, however, 
he was struck by a peculiarity in the 
tones that he had not noted the night 
before. The men's articulation was 
sharp and rapid, and unlike the soft 
sounds of the Slavonic tongue. 

Getting up cautiously he went to 
the window, and rubbed the hoar 
frost from the glass. A white world 
met his gaze, and the scarlet disk of 
the rising sun was cut across by a 
gleaming blue-white line. A star still 
trembled high in the sky ; beneath it, 


Xlbc IReD Star 


6i 


as it were, was a sight that instantly 
arrested his attention. 

Tracks of numerous footprints led 
from the forest in the rear straight up 
to the house. By their depth in the 
snow they had been recently made. 
No horses had accompanied the 
party, and as the angry voices rose 
again from the kitchen, a suspicion 
of what had happened flashed across 
him. 

He turned, and leaving the room 
paused on the landing. The voices 
were now distinct, and the men were 
talking in French. The uproar was 
so great that he ventured half way 
down the stairs, and peeped through 
a chink in the wooden wall. 

A dozen men in tattered uniforms 
of various French regiments were 
standing up in the centre of the 
kitchen shouting and cursing as one 
of their number counted the gold in 
the sergeant’s purse. All provisions 
were paid for at this time by Napo- 
leon’s order, and the sergeant’s pocket 
had been well supplied. The man 
himself lay as if asleep on the floor. 


62 


XLbc IReO Star 


Three of his comrades were stretched 
beside him, but the wounded lancer 
had made an effort to rise, and his 
glazed eyes were still stamped with 
the terror with which he had met 
death. Red pools had gathered on 
the floor, and the blood had frozen 
before it had reached the snow by the 
open door. The peasant had escaped. 
In all probability he had gone out 
leaving the door ajar, and the desert- 
ers had only to step across the thres- 
hold to cut the throats of the sleeping 
men. 

As he took in the scene with one 
swift glance, Pahlen knew that he 
and the Polish offlcer would suffer a 
similar fate before an hour had passed 
unless they escaped at once. 

To wake the boy was his first duty. 
He hastened back and passed into 
the inner room. The lieutenant had 
not undressed, and lay asleep on the 
bed. Pahlen’s sword and pistol were 
at his head, and even in that moment 
of anxiety it struck the former that 
lethal weapons looked strange by the 
boy’s fair face. 


XLbc IReD Star 


63 


He raised his sword and laid his 
hand upon his shoulder. The lad 
started and sat up, his clear bright ex- 
pression changing in a moment to one 
that made Pahlen step back a pace. 

Without a word he sprang to his 
feet, the blood rushing to his face, 
while convulsively he clutched the 
hilt of his sword. Pahlen wheeled 
round and stood with his back to 
him, struck dumb by amazement. 

Was he mad, or drunk, or dream- 
ing ? he thought. Was the boy be- 
fore him not a boy, but a woman, 
the girl whose face he had seen in 
that nightmare of a dream ? For a 
minute his astonishment, flooding his 
mind, seemed to drown his senses. 
He could only stare vacantly at the 
little window beautified by the minia- 
ture foliage which the frost crystals 
had built upon it. A woman dressed 
as a man — dressed as a soldier, in 
command of men, acting the part of 
an officer ! That, too, in the midst 
of war, when Death played his rough 
game with human lives on bloody 
battle-fields. 


64 


XTbe IRcb Star 


Suddenly all the incidents that led 
up to this moment grouped them- 
selves in his mind. The old Count’s 
enigmatical warnings, the girl’s re- 
quest, the presence of Poniatovvski’s 
agent in the wood. A feeling of 
disgust instantly rose and mingled 
with his amazement as he grasped 
fully the certainty of her act. 

Their danger had now increased 
tenfold. Her irresolution, her hesi- 
tation to use his pistols, were ex- 
plained. She was as absolutely 
helpless as if she were not armed. 
Their instant escape, the defence of 
their lives depended upon his nerve 
and promptness, he believed. 

For both their sakes he swiftly 
decided not to let her know that he 
had recognised her. 

The front of the house was barred 
to their escape, but he had discov- 
ered a stair the previous evening 
which he believed would lead to an 
outlet. He was about to speak, but 
her voice stopped him. The colour 
was burning in her cheeks, and her 
heart beat fast. 


Zbc IReD Star 


65 


‘‘ If you are trying to escape/' she 
said, I shall fire." 

He faced her, and his tone and man- 
ner became resolute in an instant. 

We must both escape, and at 
once," he said, lowering his voice. 

As he spoke her confidence crept 
back. During the pause when he 
had turned from her she had been 
swept by fear lest he had recognised 
her, and she had controlled an im- 
pulse with difficulty to run out of the 
room and down to her lancers, who 
believed her to be a boy. 

^‘Your men are killed," he con- 
tinued rapidly — killed by robbers, 
who are now in the house. Take 
that pistol and follow me. Be cer- 
tain to use it if we are discovered." 

He motioned her towards the 
second door of the room, but she did 
not stir. 

‘‘ My men killed ! It must be a 
lie ! " she gasped. 

As you value your life come with 
me," answered Pahlen. “ It is a 
most certain truth." 

For reply she ran to the door lead- 


66 


ttbe IRcb Star 


ing to the outer room. With two 
strides he crossed the floor, and 
placed himself on the threshold. 

Let me pass, sir ! ” she exclaimed, 
anger and dismay in her eyes. 

“ I cannot,” he said, in a low, con- 
centrated tone. ‘‘ A dozen French- 
men are in the house.” 

‘‘ Frenchmen ! Oh, I see what 
you would do ! You would make me 
a prisoner ! They are my friends.” 

‘‘ As devils would be! We have 
not an instant to lose.” 

“ They will respect my uniform. 
Stand aside, sir ! I am going to 
speak to them.” 

“ Good God, no ! ” He stretched 
his arm across the doorway. The 
idea of seizing her forcibly and car- 
rying her away darted through his 
brain. Every moment was vital. 
Her perversity was lessening their 
chance of escape. 

‘‘ Lieutenant, I tell you these men 
are merciless, ” he said, swiftly, ‘‘ I 
am not deceiving you. They will 
cut your throat as they have cut 
your men's.” 


Zbc 1f^c5 Star 


67 


Even in that moment of acute ex- 
citement he noticed the look of re- 
lief that sprang into her eyes. She 
was satisfied now that he thought her 
a boy. His words, too, gradually 
convinced her of her danger, and she 
drew back. Pahlen thrust a pistol 
in her hand. The deserters had be- 
come silent, and the fact alarmed 
him. He caught her arm, but she 
dragged it from him, and ran her- 
self to the second door, which opened 
into a long winding passage. They 
hastened round corners, down two 
or three steps to another corridor, 
where they came to a ladder-like 
stair. Here she suddenly drew up. 

Why run away ? she said, fear- 
lessly. ‘‘We are two, we are men, we 
are armed. These men are traitors 
to the Emperor. Let us fight them ! ” 

“ Impossible ! It flashed across 
him that her words were meant to 
deceive him. The attitude of her 
mind which enabled her to act im- 
pressed him at the same moment. 

She still hesitated ; he pointed 
urgently to the stair. “ Go down, I 


68 


XLbc IReO Star 


entreat you ! ” he said, almost im- 
periously. 

“ Ah, I know you to be a coward ! 
she exclaimed, and drew back. 

Pahlen took a step forward, raised 
her in his arms, giving himself exqui- 
site pain as he did so, and carried 
her down. She was no light weight, 
but she was for a minute too amazed 
to struggle. 

The room beneath was low and 
dark, but a tiny window enabled him 
to see her face as he put her down. 
Her cheeks were scarlet, her blue 
eyes blazing. 

“ You insolent Russian ! ** she 
cried. You insolent Russian ! How 
dare you ! I am an officer, not a 
child ! 

There was no time to lose,*' he 
answered swiftly, but apologetically. 

Our throats are at stake. We can- 
not fight twelve devils. We must 
fly.” 

A shout reached their ears as he 
spoke. She caught the keen, alert 
look in his eyes, and the danger that 
threatened her life lessened her sense 


^be IReb Star 


69 


of lost dignity. A door stood ajar 
at the farthest end of the room ; they 
went through it. Three steps led 
down into a cellar filled with empty 
barrels, and, making their way 
amongst them, they reached a ladder 
raised against a door that stood high 
in the wall. 

Pahlen went first ; she came be- 
hind him, their scabbards clanking 
against each rung ; her face, suddenly 
pale from excitement, was close to 
his feet. He turned his head at the 
top, and looking down met her eyes. 
The thought flashed across him that 
her lancer cap became her. Then 
the danger and absurdity of her posi- 
tion instantly recurred to his mind, 
and he laid his hand on the bolt of 
the door. As he drew it back he 
heard the sound of hoofs within. 

They had got into the stable, and 
the luck of this accident made 
both their eyes light up. The girl 
darted by him, and ran towards her 
horse. 

Douchinka ! We are alone ! Our 
brave men are killed ! she cried 


70 


XLbc 1Ret) Star 


pathetically, caressing the animal. 

You must carry me far to-day.” 

The saddles and bridles had been 
slung across an empty rack, and 
Pahlen hastened to seize two of each. 
He had scarcely laid a hand upon the 
leather when a sound outside made 
him pause. Then he caught Halka’s 
hand, whispered what he had heard 
in her ear, and drew her to a corner 
of the stable where a quantity of bent- 
grass and dead leaves had been piled. 
They had scarcely hidden themselves 
behind the heap when the stable 
door was flung open, and nine or ten 
men entered. Halka’s breath broke 
from her in short, quick gasps, and 
Pahlen’s eyes took on a curious light. 

A big hound-faced man walked up 
to the nearest horse and examined it, 
then he glanced at the saddlery and 
accoutrements. He wore one of the 
white coats that had been supplied 
to the French army, but which after 
Eylau were discarded. Something in 
the saddlery attracted his attention. 
Pahlen’s grasp on his pistol tightened 
as he saw him suddenly look towards 


XLbc IReD Star 


71 


the grass. Every nerve was instantly 
stretched, every muscle ready for a 
spring as he watched the movements 
of the man. 

But the robber had not seen them. 
He swung round, turning his back 
on the corner, and roared at his gang. 

Now, you blind sons of dogs ! ” 
he cried. A man has escaped. 
One of these horses was an officer’s 
charger. Only a sergeant and four 
privates lie inside. What in hell did 
you let him go for ? ” 

The deserters stood up and swore, 
but the man silenced them by a fero- 
cious look and oath. 

“ Here ! you Jacque and Antoine,’' 
he roared, pointing a pistol at the 
group of men. Take these horses 
to our quarters. Every other man 
follow me into the house.” 

He drove the deserters through the 
doorway leading into the cellar. 
They stumbled and clattered down 
the ladder with oaths and shouts. 
Then he followed, leaving the two 
men he had named behind in the 
stable. 


72 


XLbc IReC) Star 


They glanced furtively at each 
other as they saddled the horses. 
When they had done, they divided 
the animals into two groups of threes, 
the man named Jacque told his 
companion to go out with his lot 
first. 

“ Let them go out by themselves,'' 
answered the man sullenly. ‘‘We 
can mount outside." 

“ All right," said the other deserter, 
with apparent indifference. “ But 
remember, my merry son of a cock, 
Stockpot gave you a gold piece more 
than your right." 

“ You lie ! " burst out his comrade. 
“ And here ! We ’ll walk together 
from the stable." 

They went out driving the horses 
before them, and Pahlen heard them 
still disputing as they mounted in the 
yard. If he had been alone he would 
have sprung out and tried to over- 
power them. Hampered with the 
girl he did not dare make the attempt. 
The possession of at least one of the 
horses was a positive necessity. He 
knew that he must now follow the 


XLbc IReO Star 


73 


two men to the forest and force them 
to give up the animals. 

He waited a few minutes in keen 
impatience to give them time to get 
in among the trees, the voices of the 
other deserters breaking every now 
and then on his ears. In the crisis 
he heard Halka stir. He turned his 
face towards her, but only saw her 
close cut hair and the back of her cap. 

He was sure he heard her sob, and 
knew that at last she realised how 
close she was to death. His own 
face grew hard and anxious. 

Do not be afraid,’' he whispered. 
‘‘ We shall get the horses yet.” 

He had bent nearer to her as he 
spoke ; she drew swiftly back amongst 
the reeds. 

Afraid ! ” and he heard her choke 
down her sobs, and saw her draw 
her hand quickly across her eyes. 
‘‘ Afraid ! That is not likely, sir ! 
Poniatowski’s Lancers know how to 
die.” 

“ I know your courage,” he an- 
swered. “ We will follow those two 
men and overpower them.” 


74 


Xlbc IReD Star 


He rose, held out, and then drew 
back his hand. She stood upright, 
her face pale but composed, though 
some tears hung among her lashes. 

‘‘ Run in the track of the horses,’’ 
he said, as they reached the door. 
‘‘ You can defend your life ? ” 

She gave him one swift, indignant 
glance. ‘‘You forget, sir, lam an 
officer ! ” she exclaimed ; and, draw- 
ing her sword, ran on. 

“ I shall have to kill her yet if they 
overpower us,” he thought, as he fol- 
lowed her ; and kept close in her 
wake to cover her in case they should 
be seen from a window. 

But no ball whistled after them, 
and before long they reached the 
outskirts of the forest. The track 
divided here ; each deserter had led 
his string of horses in a separate 
path through the trees. Halka 
paused, uncertain which track to 
follow, and Pahlen took the lead. 

He looked back and saw her stand- 
ing panting, with her hand pressed 
to her side. Though his thoughts 
were chiefly concentrated upon get- 


Xlbc IReD Star 


75 


ting the horses, the astonishment he 
had felt when he aroused her still 
possessed his mind. Under his anx- 
iety he was conscious that something 
extraordinary had happened, and 
that when he had killed the men and 
obtained the horses and had time to 
think of it that this amazement would 
increase. 

The undergrowth thickened as 
they went on. The tracks wound 
more and more as the men had rid- 
den into the clearer spaces. The 
tangled branches of the birch and 
young beech scattered sprays of crys- 
tals over both pursuers. Now and 
again Pahlen looked back to be sure 
that Halka was behind him. Some- 
times he saw her upraised arm as she 
held up a branch ; sometimes her 
face, pink with exercise, flashed out 
from the network of the slender silver 
birches. 

Suddenly they heard voices in 
front of them. He raised a warning 
hand, and crept round the trees till 
he was within a few paces of the 
men. They had drawn up in a clear- 


76 


Zbc 1Re& Star 


ing, and each man kept his group of 
three horses some yards apart from 
the other. The deserter Antoine 
was speaking, and at every word he 
uttered his eyes rolled round the 
opening. 

‘‘I Ve had enough ofCaptainStock- 
pot and this cursed life,’' he said, de- 
fiantly. “A wise woman in Warsaw 
told me a thing. Yes, wring her 
neck ! she did. She peered at me 
with her hell-cat eyes. I hear her 
screech now. A comrade was to 
kill me, she said. But she lied — lied 
damnably. Last night I felt the 
rope round my throat. I won’t feel 
that twice. Hey ! will you come to 
Mural ? ” 

Go to the devil ! ” cried the other 
man. What do you want to be shot 
by the Russians and eaten by wolves 
for ? Let them hang me when they 
get me ! Stockpot is good enough 
for me.” 

You ’ll squeal another mass when 
the cord ’s tightening round your 
neck,” answered his comrade. ‘‘ I 
shall go. I am no traitor. I ’ll keep 


tTbe ir^eb star 


77 


my oath to Stockpot. I ’ll remem- 
ber the feasting and the deviltry we 
have had. I won’t tell what I know 
about you and him and the gang. 
If I am asked for evidence I ’ll re- 
member my oath. Oh, yes ! ” 

He turned his horses away, throw- 
ing a dark, suspicious glance upon 
his companion, who sat still in his 
saddle with a tightened rein and his 
eyes cast down. Once and again he 
looked back, but on reaching the 
trees he burst into a coarse song as 
if his fear had vanished. At that 
moment the other man raised his 
gun and fired ; the song turned into 
a hoarse cry, and lurching to one 
side, the deserter fell to the ground, 
his foot dragging in the stirrup for a 
yard as the horses galloped off. The 
other robber sprang from his saddle, 
and flinging his rein across a bough, 
bent over the body. At the same in- 
stant Pahlen ran out and fired with 
something of the excitement and in- 
terest he would have felt if it had 
been a wolf he had been killing. 
The man leapt up, the gold he had 


78 


XLbc 1Rc^ Star 


taken from his comrade’s pocket fall- 
ing in a shower on the snow ; then 
with a groan he dropped forward on 
his face. 

Pahlen seized the horses. When 
he turned he saw Halka standing a 
few yards off with horror in her eyes. 
The other horses had broken them- 
selves free, and were running through 
the wood in the direction of the farm. 

He untied one of the animals and 
led it towards her. She drew back, 
throwing him one eloquent glance of 
mingled reproach and terror. Pahlen 
began to adjust the stirrups to give 
her time to recover herself. When 
he looked again she had drawn her 
sleeve across her eyes. 

‘‘ The horses have headed for the 
farm,” he said hurriedly. 

She looked up with some agitation, 
but tried to recover herself. He 
placed the reins in her hand, and 
swung himself across the back of his 
own horse. A glance thrown askance 
showed him that the next second 
she had mounted with the ease of a 
boy. 


ttbe Star 


79 


He rode off under the impression 
that she was following him. On look- 
ing back, however, he found this was 
a mistake. The girl was riding across 
the clearing in the opposite direction. 
He turned and galloped up to her 
side. 

‘‘ You must come with me,” he 
said, authoritatively. ‘‘ That way 
takes you deeper into the forest.” 

I wish to leave you ! ” she replied, 
passionately, her eyes averted from 
his. 

‘‘ That devil in the white coat will 
be on our track in a minute,” he 
answered, controlling his impatience. 
‘‘ His mercy will be short. You are 
riding into his den. You saw that 
murder. That and worse will be 
our fate.” 

‘‘ I will not ride with you ! ” Her 
voice still trembled with passion. 

‘‘Till beyond pursuit, you must,” 
— his tone was polite but decided — 
“ unless you wish for death, and it 
would not be a swift one,” he added. 

Her anger suddenly died away at 
his words. Without answering him 


8o 


Zbc IReD Star 


she turned her horse, and they rode 
back in silence across the clearing. 

Keeping within the trees, they 
went on till they had left the farm- 
house some distance in the rear, then 
they ventured into the open plain. 
But shouts instantly followed them, 
and the deserters, mounting the cap- 
tured horses, galloped in pursuit. 

Pahlen leant forward, struck Hal- 
ka’s horse on the flank with the flat 
of his sword, drove his spurs home, 
and tore on. But he knew the rob- 
bers dare not ride far from the forest, 
and he had no real fear of their com- 
ing within pistol shot of him. 

A blue fog gathered over the plain 
as they raced along. Their horses’ 
breaths came in white gushes, and 
the smoke rose from their quarters 
as they sank hoof deep in the snow 
at every stride. The whitened forest 
rose on the right, the frozen lake 
with its frosted reaches lay on the 
left. The scarlet sun had disap- 
peared, and the fog hung in folds 
over the glassy surface. A flock of 
wild swans flew circling in dark lines 


8i 


XLbc IReO Star 

over their heads, their shrill cries 
piercing the mist. Right before them 
a grey form stood in the snow. For 
a moment its red eyes faced the 
riders, then with a snarl it sprang 
aside and ran back to the forest. 
Halka’s horse swerved in fright, and 
stopped short. 

Pahlen looked back. The fog had 
thickened towards the forest, and the 
pursuers were blotted out. Not a 
sound but the piercing note of the 
swans broke the silence. They had 
got beyond the reach of the deserters, 
and he could give attention to the 
thoughts that were clamouring to be 

heard. 

6 


IV. 


H er eyes met his, and he saw 
her expression had altered. 
Though their gaze separated at once, 
he knew that her fear of the robbers 
had merged into fear of his recog- 
nition. 

Her disguise was so good that if he 
had never met her before he would 
have taken her for a boy. He no- 
ticed, too, that she rode well, and 
had been through the riding school. 
She had also drawn and held her 
sword as if with a trained hand. 

Cases had occurred, he was aware, 
of women who had gone through 
campaigns without their sex being 
discovered. But these women were, 
or ought to be, widely different in 
mind and bearing from a girl of noble 
birth reared in wealth. His feeling 
of disgust grew stronger as he fully 
realised what she had done. 


82 


^Tbe IReD Star 


83 


The girl's voice broke the pause. 
It was clear, musical, and free from 
defiance, but with a ring of courage 
in it that fixed his attention. 

You were, and still are, my pris- 
oner," she began. 

He shot a glance at her again, and 
knew she was acting, acting prettily, 
too, the part of a bright, daring boy. 

“ But a prisoner now would be in 
my way. Therefore, Sir — Count 
Pahlen, I think you said your name 
was — I restore you your liberty, your 
sword, and one of your pistols." 

^‘You adhere to your wish to 
part?" said Pahlen. 

‘‘Certainly. We are enemies. 
Your way lies towards the Russians, 
mine to the French." 

His eyes fell upon the wolf's track 
in the snow. “ Do you know their 
line of march ? " he asked. 

“Yes," she replied, with a fearless 
air ; but he had caught the flash of 
doubt in her eyes, and knew she did 
not. 

With a careless salute she swung 
round and rode off — rode off into that 


84 


^be IReb Star 


endless waste, with its gristly horrors. 
Pahlen glanced again at the ominous 
track, and then gazed after her. If 
he was not to shame his manhood he 
must follow, and yet he did not want 
to. 

Unsexed little wretch ! ” he said 
to himself. She is going to her 
death, and I have to save her.'' 

Her scorn had hurt him once like 
a knife. It could never do so again, 
he thought. To him her uniform 
robbed her of all her woman's power. 

There was irony, too, in the mo- 
ment. Why should something bind 
him to her when both so desired their 
separation ? — that something which, 
perhaps, was honour, or the instinct 
that makes a man protect a woman, 
and he had to obey it. 

But he did not know how to force 
her to accept his escort till his own 
physical sufferings gave him the clue. 
By appealing to her sympathy — and 
that quality was left to her yet to 
judge by her care of both himself and 
her lancer — she might tolerate his 
presence. His wound had bled afresh 


Ube IReb Star 


85 


when he had carried her down the 
stair ; the frost had made the blood 
congeal, and stabs of pain pierced his 
shoulder. 

He spurred forward, and she looked 
back as she heard his horse’s hoofs. 
In another minute he was by her 
side, and pointed to his arm. 

‘‘You must let me go with you,” 
he said, forcing a note of entreaty 
into his tone. “ My arm is useless.” 

Her eyes clouded, and her face 
coloured vividly. 

“ Do you want the help of my 
sword ? ” she demanded. 

“ If you will give it to me. We 
can part when we get to a village.” 

She sat looking down at her horse’s 
mane, perplexity on her face. He 
read her suspicion, and hastened, 
though half against his will, to re- 
move it. 

“ The snow is about to fall. If 
we keep together till we get shelter 
we shall have less to fear from wolves 
and deserters.” 

She raised her eyes, and for an 
instant her gaze flashed upon him. 


86 


XTbe IRcb Star 


“ Are you a coward ? ’’ 

There was doubt more than inquiry 
in her tone. 

“Yes, a damnable one.’' 

“ Oh, I can believe it ! Very well, 
coward, lead the way.” 

He at once rode forward, aware 
that, in spite of her words, his wound 
was the scarlet thread that bound her 
to him. Soon the thoughts which 
their danger had kept in abeyance 
sprang ujd and held him. He saw his 
brief relief had been entirely prema- 
ture. The girl had never been to 
Galicia ; Warsaw must have been her 
destination, and the roll of armies 
had brought her hither to confound 
him. 

From these thoughts sprang a 
darker one. His ruin was always a 
possibility while she lived. The 
tongue of the other woman had been 
silenced by a splendid marriage, but 
how long could he depend upon 
Halka’s word? He felt Fate was 
playing with him ; that there was 
something tigerish in its forcing him 


Zbc IReD Star 


87 


to protect a girl whose safety might 
mean his own damnation. 

He had never allowed himself to 
dwell upon the consequences of his 
acts. Consequences are such vague, 
uncertain things to most men till they 
call out to the world to behold them. 
He had trifled with his honour, and 
this was the revenge it had taken. 
The subtle whisperings of expediency 
had never really blinded his judg- 
ment. He had known when he made 
his choice that his one dominant 
wish was to keep all that made his 
life delightful. Sometimes a man 
gets pushed into a corner where his 
conscience has not elbow room, as it 
were, to fight. Then, in this world 
of tangled emotions, who is to help 
him ? 

Moreover, he had dared to fool the 
Emperor, a kindly, ardent Emperor, 
it was true, but none the less an 
autocrat. If the story reached Alex- 
ander's ears he had enough of the 
iron will and sense of personal dignity 
of the Romanoff's to order his dis- 


88 


^bc IReO Star 


missal from the guards, and his name 
to be struck off the roll of nobles. 

His horse and Halka’s had fallen 
into a walk. Neither he nor the girl 
had tasted food since the previous 
night. The frost was gripping the 
land, and objects loomed distinctly 
through the fog. The howl of a wolf 
came out somewhere from the dense 
atmosphere ; a minute later its form, 
vague as some ghostly terror, flitted 
past them. A brand of fire seemed 
pressed to his wound, and, burdened 
with Halka’s presence, he did not 
know whither to go. 

Then out of the chaos of his 
thoughts the plan of looking for a 
village and leading her there shaped 
itself. He would acquit his con- 
science of murder by letting her know 
before they parted that he had recog- 
nised her, and warn her of her 
danger. After that, if she still held 
to her mad career, he would be free 
of all responsibility. Upon her own 
head would be her fate. 

Presently he looked back ; her face 
was pinched by cold and hunger, but 


Ebc IReO Star 


89 


her eyes were still bright and fearless. 
Admiration began to mingle with his 
disgust, and a sudden wish to learn 
her story awoke in his mind. He 
tightened his rein and waited for her 
to come up, but she halted two paces 
behind him. This made him alight 
and examine his girths. 

He can tighten a strap,” thought 
the girl as she watched him. ‘‘ His 
wish for my sword is a ruse.” 

Up to the moment when he had 
burnt the despatch she had despised 
him most sincerely. But the sight of 
that courage which had made him 
risk his life for the sake of duty had 
caused her to modify her opinion. 
It was courage, perhaps, of the coarse, 
physical kind, and she had had proof 
that he lacked that higher bravery 
which is so rare. Still to be prompt 
and fearless in the face of death was 
a fine thing. 

He turned towards her, lifting his 
eyes to her face. 

Are you a Czarlorisky ? ” he asked 
abruptly, mentioning the name of a 
great Polish family.” 


90 


^be IReb Star 


No/’ she replied, looking straight 
between her horse’s ears. The cool- 
ness of his tone annoyed as well as 
disconcerted her. 

‘^You have made the wrong 
choice,” he added. Half the 
Polish nobles are in our service.” 

‘‘Well, sir, what is that to you? 
My choice cannot concern you.” 

“AVhat impudence,” thought Pah- 
len. But she felt relieved. “ Ah,” 
she said to herself, “ he does think I 
am a boy ! ” and the next instant 
despised him for not recognising her. 
She felt, however, oppressed by a 
sense of her girlhood every time he 
looked at her or spoke. 

“ An only son ? ” asked Pahlen, as 
he turned again to his traps. 

“ When you tell me your history, 
sir, you shall learn mine ! ” 

“Very well,” he answered, and, 
mounting his horse, rode by her side. 
Then, as they wandered on in the 
fog, he told her his name again, his 
military rank, his prospects, and the 
names of his best friends, A silence 


XLbc IReD Star 


91 


followed this confidence, and the girl 
shivered in her saddle. 

And you ? ” he said at last. 

“ I ? Oh, there ’s nothing to tell. 
We have all been soldiers. My cousin 
refused to join the French, so I went.’' 

She drew in her horse to let him 
take the lead. But he halted too, 
for his eyes had been attracted to 
what looked like a low cloud creeping 
over the veiled line of the horizon. 
The girl saw it also, and a second 
later knew that it was dark masses of 
men. Something leapt to her throat, 
and every pulse in her body beat 
quicker. 

The next instant Pahlen seized her 
bridle, and, turning her horse about, 
led it towards a wood. 

‘‘The French?” she asked, her 
eyes dilated. 

“No, the Russians,” was all he 
answered. 

For a moment she allowed him to 
lead the animal, then, suddenly re- 
covering herself, tried to free her 
reins from his control. 


92 


Zbc IRet) Star 


“ Let go, sir ! You have deceived 
me. You are well able to defend 
yourself. Go to your friends ! ” 

“ We must keep together,” he said, 
without altering the coolness of his 
tone, ‘‘unless you wish to be cap- 
tured.” 

He knew — what she was ignorant 
of — that these soldiers would shoot 
her as an insurgent. It was that 
knowledge that had made him obey 
the impulse to seize her horse and 
lead her into the shelter. 

Among the trees he dismounted, 
and guided both animals through the 
underwood. The girl still looked 
with impatience and disfavour at 
him ; but at the same time she did 
not wish the Russians to see her. 
Poniatowski’s Lancers had only re- 
cently been attached to Davout’s 
light cavalry, and she had seen no 
action. She wondered if Pahlen 
meant to make her a prisoner. If he 
did it would conclusively prove that 
he had not recognised her, and for a 
second she almost hoped he would. 

“ Am I to give up my sword ? ” 


XLbc IReD Star 


93 


she asked, in an indignant and agi- 
tated voice, as he halted both horses. 

To whom? Tome?’* 

^‘Yes.” 

He was silent, but his eyes swept 
her face. A bright colour sprang to 
her cheeks. She looked above his 
head, determined not to let her eyes 
fall before his. Her gaze rested on 
a grey crow which was ruffling its 
feathers with cold among the 
branches. 

The blush was the first sign of 
consciousness of sex that he had seen 
in her, he thought. She had the 
grace left to remember she was a 
woman. 

Not unless you wish it,” he said. 
“ I shall then send you back to your 
people.” 

A look of alarm sprang to her eyes. 

“ Ah, this is because I am a boy ! ” 
she exclaimed. ‘‘ You would not 
dare treat a man like that ! Prince 
Poniatowski did not think me too 
young for a command ! He wel- 
comed me the moment I entered 
Warsaw. Go ! go to your Russians ! ** 


94 


Zbc IReD Star 


‘‘ Hush ! ” he answered, quickly ; 
for the grey-coated soldiers were 
drawing near. 

Go ! ” she repeated. 

He looked at her again for a 
moment. Under her excitement he 
saw that it was a tired and half-frozen 
girl who was sitting in the saddle. 
He had no answer to make her, and 
turning away walked forward a few 
paces to a spot where he could see 
the soldiers through the trees. 

A column of infantry passed first, 
marching steadily, the men keeping 
their ranks, though the whole body 
of troops was in rapid retreat. They 
came on in almost absolute silence, 
their feet producing a curious dull 
sound in the snow. As he looked at 
their faces, pinched by cold and 
fatigue, a sudden devil tempted him. 

Leave the wood and join them^ it 
said. This girl will stirely be ruin. 
If left alone she will meet her fate. 
Wolves^ robbers., the bitter weather 
and Russian soldiers threaten her life. 
The cold, or the wolves, or man will 
kill her if you leave her now. Take 


Zbc IReD Star 


95 


//le chance. Remember the fear at 
your heart. 

The fog hung in wreaths among 
the trees and on the plain ; the troops 
grew less like living men, more 
shadowy and unreal as he listened 
to the voice. The white world 
round him had a chill, phantom- 
like appearance ; every outline was 
veiled or softened ; the track of a 
bird in the snow at his feet ran into 
the depths of the wood ; the mark of 
the claws conveyed the idea that 
something unhuman and evil had 
hovered over the place. 

She had a sword, she was armed, 
why should she not find her way alone 
across the snow to a peasant's hut 
or the first French outpost? She had 
worn a uniform for three months, and 
had known the discomforts and perils 
of an army on the march. Why 
should he remain with her when she 
had the courage to defend her life ? 
He drew himself up, and made a step 
forward. Some hussars were gliding 
on the outskirts of the trees looking 
like the ghosts of men and horses. 


96 


XLbc IRcD Star 


Pahlen stopped short. The thought 
that his horse and Halka’s might 
neigh, and that she would be shot, 
struck him with curious distinctness. 

He turned without any conscious 
effort of will, as if his muscles acted 
of their own accord, and went back 
to the girl. 

An expression of mingled surprise, 
relief, and fear shot across her face 
as he took the reins and led both 
horses deeper into the wood.’' 

“ Officer,” she called out from her 
saddle, ‘‘leave me and go.” 

But Pahlen noted that the indig- 
nation had all gone from her voice. 
During the few minutes she had been 
alone a terror had thrilled her ; the 
terror of riding alone in the dark over 
the plains. She had heard the pur- 
suing pack following hard on the heels 
of her jaded horse ; and she knew her 
arm would be paralysed the moment 
those cries rang in her ears. 

“ I shall not leave you,” he said 
with decision. 

“ What ! when I tell you to go. 


XLbc IRe^ Star 


97 


You forget your wound. Ride back 
or the Russians will have passed/' 

“ I shall let theifi pass. Those 
men are in retreat. No ! we ride 
together to-night for the sake of your 
body and my own soul." 

My body ! your soul ! " she ex- 
claimed. Look here, sir, do you 
know I am an officer in Poniatowski's 
Lancers ? I have seen wounds and 
death ! I can handle my sword as 
well as any man." 

“ On my soul I have no wish to go 
with you, but I must," he replied in a 
cold measured tone that took half her 
audacity away. ‘‘ I don’t doubt your 
courage, but — there is my wound." 

He winced with actual pain, and 
though she was not quite certain 
whether he was making himself out 
worse than he was, a chord of 
sympathy vibrated in her heart. 

Stop ! " however she cried. ‘‘ I 
will not go farther into this black, 
hateful wood. There are ghouls and 
vampires here. Turn the horses 
round ! What are you flying from ? " 

7 


98 


Zbc IReD Star 


“ From the devil,” he said, tersely, 
but released her rein, and went round 
to his own horse. 

The girl looked across his saddle 
at him and shivered. He rested his 
hand on the leather and looked back 
at her in the fast fading light ; he felt 
a strange inertness creeping over his 
faculties. 

Was it Poniatowski’s agent that 
made you a soldier?” he said sud- 
denly. 

“ Partly. They wanted my name. 
The serfs would not rise unless 
a — unless I led them.” Her reply 
came readily. 

‘‘ And you brought them ? ” 

‘‘No. The cowards ! They thought 
I was too young. Only four or five 
followed me.” 

As she spoke some tears came to 
her eyes. She was ashamed to brush 
them away lest he should see the 
action ; she turned her head aside 
and opened and shut her lids to get 
rid of them. Her thoughts rushed 
back to the evening when she had 
gone through the marriage ceremony 


^be 1Reb Star 


99 


with him ; of his confession that had 
decided her destiny ; of her dream 
that night when she had seemed to 
stretch her hand across the centuries 
to the mystic maid of Orleans. 

Little lad,” said Pahlen, in a tone 
which she half resented even while it 
soothed her. ‘‘War is too bloody 
and hideous a game for you.” 

“ I tell you again,” she said, nettled, 
“ I can face death. I have done it. 
I faced your sword last night. Did 
I show fear then ? ” 

“ Good God ? ” he gasped under 
his breath as the thought suddenly 
struck him that he had nearly killed 
her. 

She rode on, and he mounted and 
followed her in the darkness. Night 
had fallen, and a wind with teeth of 
ice blew the horses' manes about their 
drooping necks, and bit under their 
riders' uniforms. The fog began to 
dissolve ; the network of branches 
crept out in dimly visible lines ; the 
white avenues that opened out 
through the trees melted off into 
the night. 


The rigors of fever had seized 
Pahlen ; he shivered and burnt ; a 
sensation of mental inertness made 
him indifferent to what might befall 
him. The day's ride seemed a fevered 
dream ; the sombre woods about them 
an interminable labyrinth ; he and 
Halka, the ghosts of a husband and 
wife, blown together by some ghastly 
wind from the land of unrealities. 

The consciousness that these fan- 
cies were caused by the fever in his 
body made his mind grope for his 
normal healthy self. He seemed to 
see it flitting close by his side, 
clothed in his own flesh, looking at 
him with sane, clear eyes. But it 
always eluded his grasp, though his 
gaze kept wandering to it. 

He watched the movements of this 
double with a faint, curious interest, 
as it floated before his horse’s head 
and passed through a black, crooked 
bar. Then in a moment the reins 
seemed to melt away in his hand, 
and his horse, the trees, the icy night 
were blotted out. 

The eclipse was so brief that the 


^Tbe IReb Star 


lOI 


next minute he knew he was sitting 
upright in his saddle with Halka by 
his side. Something slipped away 
from his body, something that had 
supported him, as he grasped his 
reins and looked around. 

What has happened ? ” he asked. 
He felt as if a sudden change had 
come over him ; as if in that dark- 
ness he had recovered his normal 
self, and had become once more 
alert with every sense under his con- 
trol. 

‘‘Your head struck against a 
branch,” answered Halka. 

“ What kept me from falling ? ” 

There was no reply. 

“Your arm? You took it away 
too quickly from a half-stunned 
man.” 

The darkness hid her features ; 
he could only see the outline of her 
profile. 

“ Ah, I am glad we kept together,” 
he said. “ But for you I should be 
lying in the snow.” 

“ Do you mean what you say ? ” 
she asked, suddenly, her eyes gazing 


102 


XLbc IReO Star 


between the stark trunks of the trees. 
‘‘ Am I protecting you or you me ? ” 

The ring of anxiety and doubt in 
her tone made him instantly answer : 

‘‘ My sword arm is useless. I have 
already told you that.” 

“ Then I am protecting you ? ” 

‘‘Yes.” 

They fell into silence, and after a 
while he heard her shiver again. 

“ Can you hold out much longer ? ” 
he said, with a sudden softening in 
his tone. The next second both in- 
stantly knew that his words were not in 
keeping with his declaration. A man’s 
care for something weaker than him- 
self lurked in his voice and manner. 

“ No doubt you are a great encum- 
brance,” she answered with some 
spirit. 

He half started. 

“ Lieutenant, you have no heart,” 
he said, conscious of and resenting 
the feeling that he was hurt. 

“ Oh, war has not hardened me 
yet. I can help a wounded man. 
But what a fool you were not to join 
the Russians.” 


^Tbe IReb Star 


103 


She is acting,” thought Pahlen, 
“ and acting badly because she is not 
sure whether I know her or not.” 

What can his tone mean ? ” the 
girl reflected. Can he have recog- 
nised me ? ” 

They had reached the edge of the 
wood. The fog had all but gone, 
and the stars were shining with a 
white, piercing light. The open 
plain lay in the foreground ; trees 
vague and ghostly filled the middle 
distance, and beyond again were 
•blurred, uncertain outlines and vary- 
ing depths of darkness in which all 
the possibilities of the night might 
be hidden. 

They rode out of the wood, and 
when some way across the plains 
noticed lights on their left. After 
scanning them for a few moments, 
Pahlen saw that they came from a 
village ; the horses broke of them- 
selves into a gallop, and it was not 
till they had swung round a grove of 
trees that he found that they were 
riding down on a camp. 

Halka’s horse had torn on ahead. 


104 


^Tbe IReb Star 


He dared not call out lest the out- 
post should hear him. What army 
lay before him he could not tell. A 
warm, luminous glow lit up the night 
from the camp fires. He made an 
effort with spur and rein to reach her 
side ; then a harsh voice in French 
rang out the challenge. 

The instinct to escape made him 
drag on his reins fiercely. He could 
see Halka racing down on the ve- 
dette’s levelled carbine, and it flashed 
through his mind that if he fled she 
would be shot. 

There was no time to reason ; his 
action must be prompt. Either he 
must let her risk the bullet or give 
himself up as a prisoner. Almost 
mechanically he stood up in his 
stirrups and answered the challenge. 

‘‘ Poniatowski’s Lancers,” he called 
out. 

By this time Halka had controlled 
her horse, and he heard the vedette 
order her to stay where she had 
halted, and saw him signal to the 
picket. An oath rose to his lips as 
he pictured his long captivity. 


Zbc IReD ^tar 


105 


Presently the ofificer in command 
of the picket and a few men came 
up, and he heard him order Halka 
to advance. As he saw the men sur- 
round her horse, the incongruity of 
her position revived his astonishment. 
He suddenly felt both repelled and 
attracted. Had she sufficient nerve 
left to act the young Polish noble 
before real soldiers ? He almost for- 
got his own capture in the sensations 
that seized him as he watched the 
scene. 

Her voice, without a tremble, came 
across the frosty night to his ears. 

“Yes, captain,” he heard her say. 
“ He is my prisoner. A brave officer, 
I tell you. Saved me from robbers. 
I am Count Mnizek, of Poniatowski's 
Lancers. As a personal favour, let 
him have his liberty.” 

But even as she spoke the picket 
had surrounded Pahlen, and he gave 
up his weapons. He could hear the 
officer’s reply. 

“ I should be enchanted to oblige 
you, Count, but it is impossible.” 

As he was brought up, he saw in 


io6 


Zbc IRet) Star 


the starlight that her face was very 
pale. 

‘‘You will find plenty of your 
countrymen with us/' remarked the 
captain, after he had asked Pahlen 
his name. “ We have been chasing 
you Russians all day." 

As this was superfluous informa- 
tion, Pahlen made no answer ; his 
air was cold and composed. His 
heart, however, was on fire ; he felt 
he must speak to the girl. 

The party rode back to the outpost, 
where he and Halka were given in 
charge to a sergeant, who led them 
to the camp. There they were re- 
ceived by an officer who told Halka 
the troops were some three thousand 
horse, which, under Murat, had been 
pursuing the Russians since morning, 
and that the Emperor, who was lead- 
ing the vanguard in person, would 
join them before dawn with a large 
body of troops. 

“ I wish to speak to the prisoner," 
she said, rather faintly, from sheer 
hunger and exhaustion. 

“ How did a lad like you capture 


Xlbc 1 Re 5 Star 


107 


one of the Tzar’s guards ? ” asked the 
officer. 

‘‘ My men wounded him,” she re- 
plied, and, getting off her horse, 
staggered and held by the saddle for 
a few moments. Pahlen had been 
ordered to alight. He wondered 
what she was going to say. 

Presently she drew nearer to him, 
and spoke in Russian. 

I never wished you to be cap- 
tured,” she said, hurriedly. ‘‘You 
saved me from robbers. For a 
coward you have some bravery. 
Good-bye.” 

“ Before you go,” said Pahlen, “ I 

should like to say ” He paused. 

The scene in the chapel rose before 
him. They stood again confronting 
each other, but every circumstance 
was altered. He now condemned, 
not she. 

She was about to turn away as the 
pause continued, but his voice 
stopped her. 

“ The play is over,” he said — “ at 
least, with me. Do you know what 
your fate will be ?” 


io8 


^be IReb Star 


‘‘ What ? ’’ 

‘‘When your heart has woman’s 
blood running in it again you will 
die or go mad — that is, if our men 
do not kill you first.” 

He saw her start and draw a long 
breath. The noisy sounds of the 
camp seemed to blend into one great 
note in the pause that followed his 
words. Her head sank forward, and 
her hand hung clenched by her 
side. 

“ Oh, God ! then you know ! ” she 
said, in a terrified tone ; but before 
he could reply the French officer 
joined them. He was a smart-look- 
ing young hussar, whose pelisse hung 
jauntily over his shoulders. 

“ Come with me. Count,” he said, 
politely. “ My man has got a fowl 
and a bottle of wine for us.” 

“ Basil Vassilievitch,” said Halka, 
in the same tone of anguish, in 
Russian, “ do you mean to tell these 
men ? ” 

The sergeant ordered him forward 
as she spoke. 

“ No,” he replied, without looking 


tTbe IReb Star 


109 


at her, as he moved away ; ‘‘ and I 
shall be damned yet for my silence.” 

Her voice followed him, but she 
was speaking to his guards. 

That officer is wounded, ser- 
geant,” she said, in gasps. Let a 
surgeon attend to him at once.” 

Pahlen looked back ; but she had 
turned so quickly away that his 
eyes failed to find her among the 
many moving figures. He felt then 
as if he were her executioner. 

“ Surgeon, indeed ! ” grumbled the 
sergeant by his side. Worse wounds 
than yours have to wait. We came 
on so fast we did not think of sur- 
geons. You ’ll have one to-morrow. 
That ’s a young cock of a Pole ! ” 

He led him to a yard in the village 
in which the prisoners who had been 
captured during the day were con- 
fined. There was no shelter except 
under a mud wall. The guards had 
kindled a large fire, round which the 
Russians huddled. Many of them 
were wounded, but there was no one 
to attend to them. A few Russian 
officers formed a group apart, and 


no 


XLbc 1Re5 Star 


they greeted Pahlen, to whom they 
were all strangers. The party would 
be sent to the rear on the morrow, 
but many were likely to die from 
exposure and wounds before they 
reached Warsaw. The few huts of 
the village were occupied by Murat 
and his staff, and every one else had 
to camp in the open. 

Pahlen stood for a few moments 
among the officers, hearing yet not 
hearing what they said. His thoughts 
dwelt on Halka. He had wished her 
dead at times, and yet he had risked 
his life and given up his liberty for 
her sake. He turned aside after a 
few moments, and lay down on the 
dirty, trampled snow. 


V. 


U p above him were the silver stars 
and great black, moving 
clouds. A yard from where he 
lay the showers of yellow sparks 
and the curling smoke danced and 
wreathed over the snow. The flick- 
ering light shone on the faces of 
the prisoners, most of them men who 
took their fate with something of 
sheep-like resignation, though here 
and there the impatient eyes of a boy 
looked round the group. Across the 
wall came the noise and stir of the 
camp, the whinnying of tethered 
horses, the ring of arms as the men 
cleaned their weapons, the sound of 
voices and oaths and songs. Then, 
as he stared and listened, while the 
pain in his wound became a fire and 
the blood rushed burning through 
his veins, the temptation sprang up- 
on him again. 


Ill 


II2 


^be IReb Star 


Of this he was assured, that if she 
died or were ruined his peace of 
mind would be restored. The sword 
that hung over his head would be 
removed ; his bigamy would never be 
discovered. To ruin her was easy. 
Only let it be known that she had 
taken up arms, had lived in the 
French camp, and he could obtain a 
divorce. If she told — as no doubt 
she would tell — his story no one 
would believe her. She was ignorant 
of the name of the other woman, 
and that other woman would lie 
worse than Sapphira to save her own 
position. 

Then she ran daily the risks of 
war. If she lived to see the battle 
now so imminent, before night fell 
she might be dead, her body left as 
food for wolves. And here revulsion 
seized him, rushed through his soul, 
showed him the hell in his heart ; 
shame overwhelmed him ; his own 
fate became no longer important ; he 
saw her eyes looking at him again as 
they had done when he had killed 
the robber. 


XLbc IRcD Star 


113 

The temptation passed ; and now 
it seemed to him that his hold upon 
realities was weakening, and that all 
the sights and sounds around him 
were fading off into unfathomed 
distances. Yet he was tormented 
by the question whether he should 
tell the French that Halka was a 
woman. Her position was terrible 
as well as singular. The scales in 
which her life was weighed were 
equally and horribly balanced. If 
he did speak, and she were cast 
adrift by the French and captured 
by the Russians, her fate would be 
as pitiless and cruel as any evil he 
had already imagined. She might 
escape death, but only for an impris- 
onment in one of the water-logged 
dungeons of St. Peter and St. Paul, 
or the terrors of Siberia. ‘‘ I must 
be silent,” he groaned ; “ but as I 
am a living man I will save her.” 

The figures of the prisoners and 
guards seemed dissolving into shad- 
ows ; he could see the forms that 
hover round delirium stealing up the 
byways from the lands that lie so 


close to death. Nothing moved or 
lived except those phantasms and 
the fever leaping in his veins ; but 
his purpose to save the girl grew and 
strengthened, and he never lost hold 
upon that thought during the mo- 
ments he was conscious. 

So he lay through the night with 
now and then great blots of darkness 
falling on him. Then life would 
leap up in his veins again, and he 
saw through dizzying leagues of 
space, and heard so far that the 
whispers of the dead in distant islands 
and worlds sounded in his ears. 

Once the clouds rolled back and 
fled across the sky before a great 
form that arose with flaming wings 
and strode the circle of the zodiac. 
It drew a fiery star from space and 
marked the brows of the sleeping 
soldiers with a sigh. He could see 
all over the camp, and the star was 
on two thousand men ; and every 
one who had it was to die among the 
plains and forests of the war-swept 
land. Then he saw the portent 
growing fainter as it trod the black, 


^be IReb Star 


115 

gold-spangled sky in the wake of the 
Russians, and his hand went to his 
own brow to touch the sign, but his 
fingers wandered over his burning 
flesh uncertain whether the mark of 
doom was there or not. 

When the trumpets rang through 
the camp he staggered to his feet 
and stared at the creeping dawn as a 
man might who thinks the Day of 
Judgment has come. The prisoners 
were grouped by the wall, and the 
guards were sharing some cold pota- 
toes with them. One of the French- 
men offered him two half-frozen, 
whitish-blue lumps. 

‘‘ God knows when we shall get 
anything to eat again,’’ the man re- 
marked. Helped down with melted 
snow it ’s not so bad.” 

Pahlen shook his head — hunger 
had left him ; but he took a deep 
draught from the pannikin of water. 

Can you tell me where Count 
Mnizek is ?” he asked anxiously. 

‘‘Who? Count Mnizek? Never 
heard of him.* Do you mean one of 
those rascally Poles that have the 


ii6 ^ Zbc IReD Star 

impudence to call these mud-fields 
their country?” 

‘‘ Ah ! the gentleman means the 
Polish boy who came into camp last 
night bringing an officer of the Tzar’s 
guards a prisoner with him,” ob- 
served the sergeant. 

‘‘Yes,” replied Pahlen, eagerly. 
“ What has become of him ? ” 

“ The Prince sent for him. His 
highness is very fond of the Poles 
just now. He wants them to make 
him their king. It ’s an odd taste. 
By God ! I don’t envy him these 
mud-plains.” 

“ And the Count ? ” 

“ Made a supernumerary on the 
Prince’s staff. The lad is a great 
noble with thousands of serfs. Ah, 
bah ! what barbarians you Russians 
and Poles are with your slaves ; we ’ll 
teach you another story now. Vive 
la liberU ! Well, our pet, our idol, 
our golden eagle, our Murat thinks 
the lad can give him a shove towards 
the crown, so he ’s to dangle on the 
staff a bit.” 

Pahlen started and shivered. Was 


TLbc IReO Star 


117 

this part of his fever ? Could any- 
thing so terrible have happened ? 

‘‘ Is this true before God ? ” he 
said, staring dizzily at the man. 

True before the little corporal 
who is greater than God,” returned 
the soldier. ‘‘Were you his prisoner, 
M. Tofficier ? ” 

Pahlen looked past him, unable 
to speak. The man’s news seemed 
incredible. Could Murat and the 
sharp-eyed men who composed his 
staff be so dull as to accept Halka’s 
boyhood as a fact ? The Prince’s 
staff had a reputation of its own in 
the French army, and Pahlen knew 
what that reputation was. The offi- 
cers were the most extravagant and 
reckless of all the men who formed 
the various staffs of the marshals. 
Cards or dice were in their hands 
every moment that they could spare 
from their duties. How could any 

boy, how could In the name of 

God, he thought, how could she hold 
her own with such companions and 
not be discovered. Then the shame 
of it ! Her mingling with these men ; 


Ii8 


tTbe TReb Star 


the sullying of her innocence, the 
degradation of the position. He felt 
a sudden passion of rage and personal 
shame seize him as fierce and keen 
as if she had really borne his name. 

It died away presently, leaving 
him in the dull stupor of fever. A 
few minutes later the officer in com- 
mand of the detachment that was to 
guard the prisoners came into the 
yard, and orders were shouted out. 
The Russian officers were formed 
in a body by themselves, and the 
prisoners were then turned into the 
street. Pahlen thought they were 
going to march, but just then a 
staff officer galloped up, and all the 
prisoners were pushed back and their 
guards formed in line. A Cossack 
captain drew his attention to the 
plain, where dense masses of men 
were moving, and told him that the 
Emperor was coming. Suddenly he 
heard the clatter of hoofs, and the 
next minute Murat, followed by a 
large staff, galloped past. 

The brilliant group went by so 
rapidly that, though he tried to keep 


his reeling senses together and scan 
each rider, it seemed to him that he 
saw a dozen Halkas and yet no girl. 
The thud of hoofs, the scattered 
snow, and the rush of wind came to 
him as things he felt and heard and 
saw from a slope, down which he 
was slipping into unfathomed depths. 
He made a desperate effort to control 
his failing powers, to retain his hold 
on life, and his eyes followed the 
Prince and his staff with a fixed and 
rigid stare. 

He could see a knot of men riding 
at the gallop across the plain, led by 
an officer in a grey coat. All the bril- 
liant colours of both groups of riders 
seemed to flash and mingle together, 
each hue intensely vivid in contrast 
to the white ground. Then the 
swords flashed in salute like brief 
shafts of dazzling light, and Murat 
drew rein by the man in grey. A 
second later the Prince and his staff 
fell into place among the Emperor’s 
retinue ; and as Napoleon spurred 
forward, a shout went up from the 
cavalry, that startled the wild swans 


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overhead, and sent the wolves far 
into the depths of the forest. A 
piercing wind smote the marrow of 
men. Pahlen could see them through 
the few flakes of snow that were 
beginning to fall, sitting frozen on 
their saddles. Gaunt, half-starved, 
war-worn, they sat there ready to die 
for the man who was treading his 
own terrible destiny over the lives 
of thousands without regret or re- 
morse. A minute later a voice harsh 
and penetrating rang in his ear ; the 
prisoners were formed into order, 
and the march to the rear began. 

That night he opened his eyes to 
find himself lying on a bed of straw 
in a peasant’s hut. A dark-skinned 
woman bent over him ; her hand 
made the sign of the cross as their 
gaze met. 

Is the gracious officer better ? ” 
she said, looking curiously at his face. 

He did not answer ; his mind was 
grouping in strange confusion, and 
he could not yet recall what had 
happened. 


^be 1Reb Star 


I2I 


The gracious Pom will live/’ 
said the woman, turning to some one 
behind her. A man’s voice growled 
out a reply, and Pahlen saw a tall 
peasant examining his boots by the 
light of a small, evil-smelling lamp. 

‘‘ Where am I ? ” he said, and then 
tried to answer the question himself 
as he closed his eyes and saw shapes 
evolving from the black cloud which 
he seemed to see so plainly, and which 
he said to himself was oblivion. The 
endless waste of snow, the long string 
of prisoners, the flakes resting on the 
weapons of the guards, these things 
he saw ; then Halka, bright and 
daring in her lancer uniform, sprang 
up before him and shook a lance in 
his face ; then the fire and mirth 
died out of her eyes, tears gathered 
in them ; her look of eloquent appeal 
made him start up with his hand 
stretched out to grasp hers. 

The woman forced him back on 
the bed. ‘‘ You are in the hands of 
God,” she said, answering his ques- 
tion ; and she turned and spoke 
fiercely to the man behind her. 


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“ Leave those boots alone ! ’’ she 
cried. The blood in your heart is 
black water, Jan Brodiskow ! 

A curse and a growl answered, and 
Pahlen sank into unconsciousness 
again. By the second day the fever 
left him, and he was able to sit up in 
his bed and talk to the woman. There 
was a tender gleam in her solemn 
black eyes that told him that she was 
human and true. 

She had taken his uniform and 
hidden it, covering his shoulders with 
a Frenchman’s cloak, as Napoleon 
was master of all the country round. 
All day the men who had fallen out 
during the long marches were pass- 
ing in groups and sometimes in com- 
panies and troops, to get up with 
their regiments. These stragglers oc- 
casionally stopped at the door of the 
hut and demanded either food or 
drink. Some of them noticed Pahlen, 
but the woman told them passively 
that he was a Frenchman. 

Her husband was out each day 
from the first gleam of light till night 
fell. He often brought in blood- 


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123 


stained uniforms and boots, and laid 
these spoils in a corner of the hut till 
at last the heap became very large. 
Pahlen could look at it from where 
he lay, and some of the clothes re- 
tained the shape of the dead soldiers’ 
bodies. At times he almost fancied 
that he saw a hand or a foot thrust 
out from the sleeves and trousers, 
and at first, before his strength re- 
turned, he could not get rid of a 
consciousness of vague forms under 
the clothes. He thought the man, 
whenever he met his eyes, looked dis- 
appointed that he had not died too. 

‘‘ The gracious officer knows that 
I saved him,” he said once or twice, 
as he stood by Pahlen’s side. It 
was growing dark, and I saw the 
French taking their prisoners along 
the field. I had gone out to dig the 
sledge track, and my eyes fell upon 
you in the snow. Oh, I hurried down, 
you may be sure, and when I drew off 
your boots you groaned, and I re- 
membered God and carried ypu to 
my house. Your high nobility will 
not forget what I have done.” 


124 


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“ You shall be paid,” Pahlen al- 
ways answered. The French soldiers 
had emptied his pocket the night of 
his capture, and he had not even a 
rouble to offer the man. 

Each day, as he grew stronger, his 
resolve to save Halka became more 
firmly settled in his mind. He had 
moments when the thought of her 
position filled him with such horror 
that in order to calm himself he 
would try to occupy his mind with 
the things around him, and watch the 
woman cooking at the stove, or count 
the brown rafters or the holes in the 
mud floor. Again and again he formed 
plans of how he could meet her, plans 
which each one contained the possi- 
bility of his own capture and death. 

Now and then a frightened peasant 
came in with rumours of the armies, 
but the stories were so absurd that he 
knew that they were false. He had 
been seven days in the hut when a 
man in a dirty, threadbare caftan 
came across the threshold. His greasy 
side-locks and forked beard shook as 
he darted towards the corner where 


Zbc 1 Re 5 Star 


125 


the peasant was counting the uni- 
forms. 

‘‘ And for these, and these, you 
want five florins ! '' he exclaimed, 
taking up each garment and shaking 
it. ‘‘ Brodiskow, it ’s as true as God 
in heaven that I could not get three 
for these blood-stained rags.’' 

‘‘ I said fifteen,” said the peasant, 
doggedly. “ The boots may have 
holes, but look at this cloak ! It 
was a colonel’s.” 

Fifteen ! ” shrieked the Jew, as 
if he had been stung, and he cast the 
hussar pelisse he held in his hand on 
the ground. Fifteen ! you ask fif- 
teen, when by to-morrow or the day 
after there will be hundreds and tens 
of hundreds of dead men to be 
plucked at Eylau and Rothenen ! ” 
The words roused Pahlen. 

‘‘ A battle ! ” he exclaimed, start- 
ing up. When ? To-morrow ? ” 
But the Jew took no notice of him, 
and went on examining the uniforms. 

‘‘ Fifteen ! ” he began, but Pahlen 
sprang out of bed, a sudden vigour 
in all his limbs. 


126 


XTbe IReb Star 


“ You dog ! answer me at once ! 
he cried. 

His tone and threatening air showed 
the Jew in a moment that he was in the 
presence of the ruling race. Abject 
and frightened he bent before him, his 
hand still grasping a braided jacket. 

‘‘ Pardon, your high nobility, par- 
don,’' he murmured. ‘‘ I did not 
hear your high nobility. What can I 
do for the gracious officer ? Ah, the 
battle,” he added, hurriedly, at a sign 
of impatience from Pahlen. ‘‘ My 
cousin Naftali brought the news, and 
he is a man who never lies save in 
business. He said to me an hour 
ago that the Russian rear-guard had 
been destroyed. The rest of the 
army is drawn up at Landsberg, and 
a great battle is about to take place. 
He rode a fast horse and had seen 
these things himself.” 

Pahlen turned to the woman and 
demanded his uniform. He felt 
strangely invigorated, as if the tidings 
he had heard had restored him to 
his full strength. The certainty that 
Halka would be in the coming hell 


Zbe IRcO Star 


127 


filled him with unutterable horror, so 
that between his wish to save her and 
a fierce desire to join the Russians 
before the battle, he touched such 
heights and depths of passion, despair, 
and hope as made him forget his sur- 
roundings ; and that he was rushing 
out of the hut on certain danger. 
Every soldier whom he met would 
either be a Frenchman or belong to 
one of Napoleon’s allies. 

But the woman remembered it, and 
as soon as he had dressed and left the 
hut, she tore a cuirassier’s cloak and 
cap from the heap of uniforms and 
ran after him, indifferent to the yells 
of her husband and the Jew. 

** Take these,” she cried, ‘‘ and may 
the life I kept in you escape in battle 
and flight ! ” 

He flung the cloak across his 
shoulders, and set out over the fields, 
following the road which had been 
cut through the snow. Now and 
then he thought he heard distant 
cannonading ; and as night was falling 
he hastened to the nearest village in 
the hope of being able to get a horse 


128 


{Ibc TReb Star 


and a sword. But the peasants stared 
stupidly at him, and swore that neither 
horse nor weapon was to be bought 
at any price. He was about to turn 
away in disgust, when the Jew 
touched his arm. 

“ I knew what the gracious captain 
would want,’’ he said, in a shrill nasal 
tone, “ therefore I followed him. If 
your high nobleness will come round 
here I will show you a horse with the 
beauty and speed of an angel.” 

He led Pahlen to the back of a hut, 
and there sure enough was a horse 
which, if no beauty, looked strong 
enough for his purpose. The Jew 
accepted a paper duly signed and 
witnessed, and brought Pahlen the 
sword of a Russian infantry officer. 

The next day Pahlen followed in 
the track of the armies, guided by the 
sound of firing. The two wings of 
the French army were still in the 
rear, and he had to avoid both Ney’s 
and Davout’s columns. The cloak 
and cap enabled him to escape detec- 
tion at a distance, but he had often 
to take refuge in a wood from bodies 


Zhe IRcD Star 


I2g 

of stragglers. When night fell he 
rode into a small town nearly deserted 
of its inhabitants, but where he man- 
aged to obtain food and shelter. 

Long before the first glimmer of 
dawn he was again in the saddle. By 
eight o'clock he heard the guns open, 
as he judged, on the Russian side, 
and knew he was too late for the 
battle. Very soon the cannonading 
from both armies grew into one con- 
tinuous roar, and though the fight 
was taking place at the distance of 
many leagues, and the French were 
between him and the Russians, he 
rode on as fast as his horse could 
gallop, reckless whether the enemy 
saw him or not. 

The thought that Halka, if still 
alive, was somewhere in that infernal 
scene, made him desperate and abso- 
lutely indifferent to his own fate. 
Pictures of the girl froze themselves 
into his brain. He saw her go mad 
and shriek out till those around her 
knew she was a woman ; he saw— 
what really happened — the charge of 
Murat's squadrons into the heart of 


130 


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the Russians ; he could see her left 
behind, reeling, frenzied, or borne on 
in the crush of the charge, unable to 
strike a blow for her life. 

The snow came down at intervals 
and hid the track from his sight. 
Sometimes his horse stumbled over 
the bodies of men and horses half 
buried in the drift. Now and again 
he had to halt, unable to tell where 
he was in that mad white world, 
while all the time the din of the guns 
rang in his ears. At such moments 
his excitement to know how the battle 
was going got almost beyond his con- 
trol, and he went through thrills of 
emotion that were like physical pain. 

As the day closed in and no broken 
ranks of the French came pouring 
across the country, he feared the 
worst. The firing had lessened ; and 
by night had altogether ceased. A 
blaze of light had sprung up against 
the sky as he rode down a ravine and 
came across a group of peasants who 
were talking noisily and pointing at 
the glow. 

‘‘ That is Eylau,** he heard them 


say ; and another, I have a cousin 
there. He is bed-ridden and could 
not 

They looked round as Pahlen came 
up, he and his horse standing out like 
one black shadow against the snow. 

“ Has any one news ? he asked, 
looking down at the silhouette-like 
forms that grouped round his bridle. 

Yes, highness, the Russians are 
killed to a man, not one left. Oh, 
such slaughter ! 

“ Will any one here go to Eylau on 
an errand for me ? he inquired. 

The black figures stirred, but no 
one answered for a minute. Then a 
young man laid his hand on Pahlen's 
knee. Yes, excellency,'' he said. 

Pahlen moved a few paces off, the 
man joined him, and the bargain was 
quickly made. He promised the Jew 
everything he asked, and would have 
added his own soul if the man had 
demanded it. Then he rode down 
the hillside to the village, and dis- 
mounting, entered one of the cottages. 

It was morning before the mes- 
senger returned, and during those 


132 


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hours Pahlen had seen Halka die a 
dozen deaths, ghastly, torturing, un- 
thinkable. Underneath this turmoil 
of his thoughts lay a sullen sense of 
shame and defeat. He had yet to 
learn that the French had suffered 
almost as severely as the Russians. 

He met the man at the door, and 
saw on his arm the cause of his delay. 
The Jew had been robbing the dead, 
and handed his booty to an old man 
before he answered Pahlen. 

Oh, excellency, it is all blood 
and snow and fire,” he cried, raising 
his plump, stained hands. ‘‘ A Ge- 
henna indeed ! Before God it is true 
the Russians have been killed off to 
but a few men, and they have gone to 
Konigsberg. Prince Murat has fol- 
lowed them. I know not whether 
Count Mnizek is alive or dead.” 

It flashed instantly across Pahlen 
that he must ride after Murat. He 
scarcely thought of the danger of 
such an adventure. It was impera- 
tive, he said to himself, to learn 
Halka’s fate. The Jew had told 
him that he had sold spirits to the 


XLbc 1 Re 5 Star 


133 


French ; and it struck Pahlen that 
here was the messenger by whom he 
could communicate with the girl if 
she were still alive. He asked the 
man if he would accompany him. 

The Jew consented, and went away 
to look for a horse. While he was 
absent, Pahlen examined his own 
girths and bridle-straps with care. 
He felt now cool and collected, 
though the irony of facing a hostile 
army for the sake of a woman whose 
rescue might mean his ruin, and who 
certainly would be in his way, struck 
him once or twice. 

On starting, he soon found that 
they could only journey by night. In 
the day they had to hide in the woods 
to avoid the main body of the French, 
which was retiring from Eylau. But 
once beyond the village he was able 
to ride directly in Murat’s track. 

Day was breaking when he reached 
the neighbourhood of Konigsberg. 
He drew up in a birch wood whence he 
could see the town, and was amazed to 
find that Murat had had the audacity 
to make an attempt to besiege it. 


134 


^be IReb Star 


As the nearest picket was not far 
from the wood, his companion advised 
him to seek shelter in one of the huts 
that stood a few yards off. They were 
inhabited by Jews, who clung to their 
homes in spite of the passing and re- 
passing of armies, and a cousin of his 
guide lived in one. 

The sun had not yet risen, and 
securing their horses, they left the 
wood. The Jew received them 
civilly, and told them that he and 
some others were admitted at certain 
hours into the French lines with 
drink. This was just as Pahlen 
wanted. 

Obtaining the uniform of a French 
dragoon from the man, he was enabled 
to examine the ground in the neigh- 
bourhood of the camp. There was a 
pond on the side nearest to the huts, 
partly surrounded by a wood ; a 
vedette posted on the outskirts of the 
trees made it impossible to reach the 
place in the daytime. Here, however, 
he determined to meet Halka at night 
if she were still alive. 

When he returned to the hut, he 


Zbc IReD Star 


135 


wrote a few words in Slav to the 
girl. 

Ten minutes later the younger Jew 
set out, as his cousin’s assistant, with 
the note and two large jars of spirits, 
for the camp. 

Pahlen waited in keen impatience 
for his return. The first words of 
his report reassured him. Count 
Mnizek had come alive and un- 
wounded through Eylau, and was still 
acting on Murat’s staff. The man 
then paused. 

The letter, excellency,'’ he con- 
tinued, glibly, ‘‘ I gave into the hands 
of a man, servant to an officer on the 
staff, who will deliver it to Count 
Mnizek. It will be quite safe, high- 
ness,” he added, as he saw Pahlen 
frown. “ I gave the man a pint of 
spirits for himself. He thinks it is an 
intrigue. ‘ Oh,’ he said, ‘ the Polish 
boy is a gay little devil with the 
pretty face of a girl. The staff pet 
him. He is a gay little devil.’ He said 
that, highness. He will give the note.” 

Pahlen’s frown deepened, and he 
turned aside. At that moment he 


^be IReb Star 


136 

felt more repelled than attracted by 
Halka. She must be utterly unsexed, 
he thought, and the men called her 
a gay little devil ! 

He went into the hut and stayed 
brooding there for a time. 

But his mood changed before night 
came. He said to himself that she 
was under a curse and not account- 
able for what had happened. His 
duty was to save her. 

He had felt sure at first that she 
would meet him ; as the hours passed 
he grew less confident. She was able 
to act the man with sufficient audacity 
while she thought him ignorant of her 
sex ; but whether she would be able 
to do so now that she knew he was 
aware she was a woman, was another 
matter. He recalled her blush when 
he had looked at her in the wood. 
He was half afraid that the thought 
of her uniform would keep her away 
from him. 

He looked at his watch and an- 
swered the Jew, when the man with 
some hesitation asked him if he were 
to accompany him to the camp. 


XLbc 1 Re 5 Star 


137 


“ No,” he said in a curt, decisive 
tone ; ‘Sf I am not back by morning, 
take your papers into Konigsberg.” 

He walked to the door and went 
out into the night with as cool a step 
as if about to appear on parade. 

The moon was shining over the 
town, but the sky was full of black, 
moving clouds, and now and then the 
darkness fell like a curtain. Every 
time the moon came out he lay down 
on the frozen snow ; every time it 
was obscured he ran on to get between 
the pickets, holding his scabbard in 
his hand. 

He crossed a road, and then a field 
which rose in a slight incline towards 
the pond. The darkness enabled him 
to hurry up this rise unseen. In a 
few minutes he knew he had got past 
the picket, and walked boldly for- 
ward, trusting that the sight of his 
uniform would prevent any one from 
asking him for the countersign. 

A few yards brought him near the 
wood ; the vedette faced the town ; 
a cast-iron looking equestrian figure 
against the watching night. Pahlen 


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^Tbe IReb Star 


steps became slow and deliberate ; a 
corner of the moon shone out through 
a rift like a jagged knife-thrust in the 
black drifting clouds. A step more 
and he was among the trees. The 
undergrowth showed in a white, 
ghostly glimmer ; all around him was 
still. 


CHAPTER VI. 


T he men of Murat's personal 
staff were quartered in some 
hastily constructed huts of brush- 
wood and wattles, close to the small, 
ruined farmhouse, occupied by the 
Prince and the generals on his staff. 
When Pahlen took his life in his 
hand and entered the camp, about 
seven or eight young men were gath- 
ered in one of these huts playing at 
cards. 

A charcoal fire warmed the place in 
a measure, but the icy air came 
through a dozen crevices. Most of 
the men were cloaked ; but one, an 
officer with an unhealed scar on his 
cheek, had flung his aside. He was 
slightly drunk, though his manner 
scarcely showed any sign of intoxi- 
cation, and his eyes were singularly 
clear and hard. A lantern stood on a 
plank, which, raised on props, served 
139 


140 


Zbc IReD Star 


the party as a table. The money 
staked was very high ; but no one 
seemed excited over the issue of the 
games. Men had lost and won 
enormous sums with perfect coolness 
that night. The uncertainty of their 
lives had killed the gambler’s fever. 

The man with the scar presently 
flung aside his cards. Leaning back 
against the wattles, he lit his pipe 
with an air of deliberation. The 
other aides-de-camp continued to 
play. 

Where is Mignon ? ” he said, 
suddenly. 

He went to see Bidelaux,” 
answered an offlcer named La Bour- 
donnaye. 

“ Have any of you noticed his 
peculiarity ? ” 

“ If you mean that he has the face 
of a girl and the wealth of a Grand 
Duke, yes.” 

Not that,” said the man. 
‘‘ Mignon has an idiosyncrasy.” 

A love affair ? Come on, Pallis- 
seaux, it is your deal,” called out a 
fair-haired man sharply. 


“ Oil, hang your cards ! Listen to 
me. We can get some amusement 
out of it. Little Mignon can be 
baited if we like.” 

“ How?” 

Why, where the devil have all 
your eyes been ? Chastanie, you 
know that story of De Foy ? ” 

Chastanie, the fair-haired captain, 
was making some calculations and 
did not answer. 

‘‘ What was it ? ” said La Bourdon- 
naye. He had bold black eyes and a 
handsome face. 

“ Chastanie knows ; he saw it. But 
apart from that I have seen the same 
thing too.” 

“ What thing ? ” 

The boy will not let a friend 
salute him. You know Duchamp — 
how excited he gets ? Well, after 
our last cannon had ceased at Eylau, 
and the Russians were flying, he 
rushed up to Mignon and was about 
to fling his arms round his neck when 
the young rascal jumped back and 
blew him a kiss. Now, Chastanie, 
your story ! ” 


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XLbc IReD Star 


The fair-haired captain was still 
murmuring to himself. Suddenly he 
looked up, his blue eyes cool and 
smiling. 

You owe me a hundred thousand 
francs, La Bourdonnaye. Are you 
going to pay to-night ? ” 

The handsome aide-de-camp 
twirled his moustache. 

‘‘ To-morrow,” he remarked laconi- 
cally ; then briskly, What about 
De Foy ? ” 

“ Oh, he had a passage with Mig- 
non, that ’s all,” and Chastanie took 
up the cards again. 

‘‘ What about the boy's manner,” 
said a short, resolute-looking man, 
the senior officer of the staff. “ Is 
it true he will never embrace a 
friend ? ” 

Quite true,” replied Pallisseaux. 

There 's something in it cer- 
tainly,” remarked Chastanie. “ The 
General had once been intimate in 
Paris with some of the lad’s relations. 
As soon as he learnt his name, he 
stepped forward to embrace him. 
And what do you think the young 


^be IReb Star 


143 


devil did ? Drew back adroitly and 
kissed De Foy’s hand.” 

‘‘ Mon dieu ! No. What can 
have been his object ! ” 

‘‘ He did ; with the face of a lamb. 
Then, with the coolest impudence, 
told De Foy that he had made a vow 
to some outlandish Polish saint not to 
kiss or be kissed by any one but a 
girl.” 

‘‘ And the general ? ” 

“ Turned on his heel and reported 
him to the Prince. The Prince 
asked him what he meant. ‘ His 
Excellency should shave, your High- 
ness,' was all the young rascal said. 
‘ My cheeks trembled at the thought 
of his bristles.' The Prince tried to 
frown, but the boy's cool impudence 
amused him.” 

‘‘ It was well he was a Pole, 
though,” remarked the senior officer ; 
and the men turned to their game. 

Pallisseaux watched the cards as 
they turned up for a few minutes ; a 
thin veil of tobacco smoke floating 
round his head. Presently he took 
his pipe from between his lips. 


144 


^Tbe 1Reb Star 


“ I mean to cure Mignon of his 
peculiarity/' he said, shortly. ‘‘The 
boy shall break his vow to-night.” 

“ A wager ? ” said Chastanie. 

“Yes. Twenty thousand francs 
upon my making Mignon kiss or be 
kissed by one of us to-night.” 

“ Very good,” answered Chastanie; 
“ I 'll take the bet, and I shall win.” 

“ Any one else ? ” said Pallisseaux, 
coolly. 

A chorus of voices answered him ; 
most of the men laid their money on 
the boy. 

“ He 's such a young devil,” said 
La Bourdonnaye, “ he will get out of 
it somehow. Though what the deuce 
can make him object ! ” 

“ Send some one for him,” said 
Pallisseaux. 

“ He will suspect something if you 
do,” observed Chastanie. “ He 's as 
keen as a lance.” 

“Yes, yes, wait till he comes in,” 
cried the rest of the men. 

“ He ought to be here in ten 
minutes,” said Chastanie, glancing at 
his watch ; come on with the cards ! ” 


Zbc 1 ReD Star 


145 


The game continued and absorbed 
the men’s attention. Pallisseaux alone 
seemed to be on the alert for any 
sign of the boy. He had a clean-cut 
face, handsome in spite of the scar, 
but with something cold and merci- 
less in his eyes and the lines of his 
lips. 

Here he comes,” he called out to 
the men. 

The next instant the horse-cloth 
that was hung across the opening 
was raised, and a boy in a long fur- 
lined cloak came in. He walked up 
the limited space with a swagger. 

‘‘ Hallo, Mignon, come here ! ” 
said Pallisseaux, bending forward, 
and laying a large, well-shaped hand 
on the plank. The men looked up 
from their game. 

The boy drew up and stamped his 
foot ; a pink flush mounted his face. 

“ I have told you not to call me 
that name ! ” he exclaimed. How 
dare you ? It ’s not the name for a 
man ! ” 

A laugh broke from the players, 
but Pallisseaux only smiled, gazing at 


146 


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him with his keen eyes as he twisted 
the fine point of his moustache. 

Here, Mnizek,” called out La 
Bourdonnaye, “ come and share our 
last bottle of Bordeaux. The very 
last. To-morrow we shall be driven 
to snow. Think of that, my beauty! 
What, you won’t drink, you young 
fool ! I thought I had taught you 
the trick.” 

Give him some of his pig’s 
lemonade ! Where ’s that bottle of 
wodhi .? ” 

The boy glanced from face to face 
with a bright, daring expression, 
then sat down on the bank of earth 
that served as a seat. “ If any man 
calls me Mignon again I shall 
challenge him,” he remarked with 
youthful truculence, blinking his eyes 
as he looked at the lantern. 

There is a general order against 
duelling till the campaign is over,” 
laughed La Bourdonnaye. “ What 
do you say to that, my cock-spar- 
row ? ” 

‘‘ Oh, no one minds it. Honour 
before obedience,” replied the boy. 


^be IReb Star 


147 


The men were looking at Pallis- 
seaux, who appeared not to notice 
the expectancy in their eyes. He 
sat next to the boy, on the left side. 
He continued to point his moustache 
for a few minutes, then suddenly 
leant towards him and put his arm 
round his shoulder. 

“ Mignon, you shall not fight me,” 
he said, with deliberate coolness. 
“ We shall be friends. You shall 
kiss my cheek in token of our 
amity.” 

A slight movement ran round the 
staff ; amused, interested eyes were 
bent on the pair. The boy drew 
back quickly, flicking his fingers in 
Pallisseaux's face. 

‘‘ What ! be friends with you ? ” he 
cried, in a gay, half-defiant tone. 
‘‘ If I am handsome, you are an ogre 
with that cut across your cheek. 
Besides, you are drunk ! ” 

Pallisseaux smiled. ‘‘ Here, Chas- 
tanie, give me that Bordeaux,” he 
said. 

The bottle was passed, and Pallis- 
seaux held it up to the light. He 


148 


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swore. There ’s not enough left to 
make Mignon drunk,” he exclaimed. 

‘‘ Not such an easy thing,” said the 
boy. I have the head of a rock. 
And you have called me Mignon 
again. I will challenge you, and the 
Prince may cashier me if he likes.” 

Pallisseaux put down the bottle. 
“ Mignon,” he remarked, speaking 
slowly and twisting his moustache. 
“ I shall have to whip you yet. A 
big Russian rushed upon me bran- 
dishing his sword. He laid my 
cheek open, but I sliced his head off. 
By heavens, yes ! I sent him down to 
the shades. Now kiss the scar ; at 
once, and apologise.” 

The boy broke into a laugh. 
“You are hideous, Pallisseaux,” he 
observed, with bright, audacious eyes. 
“You ought not to sit by the hand- 
somest man in the hut.” 

“ Nom de Dieu ! Do you call 
yourself a man ? ” 

“ What else ? — and the handsomest, 
too, on the staff. You all tell me I 
am pretty. Don’t you. La Bourdon- 
nay e ? Wait till you see what the 


XLbc IReO Star 


149 


girls of France will think of me. 
Oh, I shall break their hearts, you 
may wager.” He put his hand up to 
his lips and twirled away at an 
imaginary moustache. 

They will put you in their 
pockets,” remarked the senior officer 
of the staff. “ They dl hold you up 
for their lovers to whip. Are you 
going to apologise ? ” 

What ? Admit that Pallisseaux 
is handsome ? ” 

“ No ; kiss the scar.” 

When he smells less of drink,” 
replied the boy, audaciously. ‘‘ What 
are you fellows doing over there ? 
Why don't you go on with your 
game ? ” 

No one answered for a moment. 
Then Chastanie spoke. 

“ A foil,” he said, quietly. ‘‘ It 's 
your deal again, Pallisseaux.” 

In a minute,” the latter replied, 
significantly, and sat brooding for a 
few seconds. Then he started. 

What day is this ?” he asked, as if 
suddenly remembering something. 

He was told. ‘‘ Ah, the anni- 


150 


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versary ! ” he exclaimed. Have 
you all forgotten it ? ” 

A look of intelligence flashed 
round the group unseen by the boy. 

Great Heavens ! yes/’ cried La 
Bourdonnaye. Chastanie, do you 
remember it ? ” There was a second’s 
hesitation in the fair-haired captain’s 
eyes, then they answered in the 
affirmative. Every man instantly 
assumed an air of enthusiastic 
interest. 

Finding the staff with him, Pallis- 
seaux rose to his feet. 

Comrades,” he said, coolly, taking 
up the cup of a flask, and pouring 
the last of the wine into it. We 
had all but forgotten a duty. This 
day, as we know, is kept by the 
Prince’s staff. We send the Loving 
Cup round.” He paused for a moment 
while a light danced into the men’s 
eyes. This cup must do instead of 
our gold flagon. But what matter ! 
We are soldiers all ! Here ’s to the 
Emperor^ our Prince^ Glory, and 
Women! Vive I’empereur ! ” 

He raised the cup to his lips as 


every officer sprang up echoing the 
cry. He barely touched the rim, and 
then kissing lightly the cheek of the 
man on his left, gave him the cup. 
The officer sipped, kissed the aide-de- 
camp next him, and passed on the 
cup. 

Eager, amused eyes were fixed on 
the boy. La Bourdonnaye sat last on 
the opposite side ; the Count was 
higher up on the left hand. His 
bright gaze never flinched as he 
watched the cup pass from man to 
man. Presently it was La Bourdon- 
naye’s turn and he took it. 

Vive Tempereur ! ” cried the 
boy, with sudden inspiration ; and 
placing one foot on the plank he 
bent forward as if to give his cheek 
to La Bourdonnaye. The next second 
the prop gave way, and lantern and 
cards were flung on the ground. His 
hand had half grasped the cup ; it 
fell from between his fingers and those 
of the aide-de-camp. 

When the plank was raised and 
the light set on it again, all eyes 
except the boy’s were turned on 


152 


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Pallisseaux. His second attempt had 
failed. 

What did you do that for ? he 
said, his tone perfectly cool but hard, 
looking at the boy. 

Why ! Because we drink toasts 
like that in Poland,*' was the innocent 
reply. Every man puts his foot on 
bis chair." 

But not on a rickety plank, you 
young fool ! You have missed the 
Loving Cup." 

By an accident," remarked 
Chastanie. 

And the wine 's spilt ! " returned 
the b'oy, regretfully. However, vive 
Pempereur ! Here ’s to Glory and 
Women ! La Bourdonnaye, what 
clumsy fingers you have got." 

Pallisseaux sat down, but returned 
the men’s gaze with a confident smile. 
He then drew out a pencil and a 
piece of paper, and scribbling a 
few words on it, tossed it across 
to Chastanie. The latter read it, 
and passed it on to the man next 
him. 

Pallisseaux re-lit his pipe and 


tlbe IReb Star 


153 


smoked for a few moments. Presently 
he put it down and swore at the 
tobacco and the man who had sold it 
to him. The boy, who had been 
watching the progress of the paper 
as it went from hand to hand, drew 
out a cigar with a smile. 

“Try this/’ he said, blandly. “I 
spend thousands of florins every year 
on choice Havanas.” 

Pallisseaux took no notice ; he 
caught the look of approval in the 
men’s eyes, and leant back against 
the wattles. 

“ Mignon,” he drawled, “ 1 have 
not yet forgiven the insult to my scar. 
I require an apology, but at the same 
time I am ready to leave the matter 
to chance. We shall settle it with 
dice. Three tosses each. If I lose I 
will not call you Mignon again. If 
you, you have to kiss the sword cut 
on my cheek.” 

The boy hesitated ; doubt flashed 
into his eyes for a moment, then he 
laughed. 

“ Try it,” he said, but his face had 
grown red. 


154 


tTbe IReb Star 


“ Where are the dice ? Hand them 
over here,” said Pallisseaux. 

As he spoke the curtain was raised, 
and a servant came in. There was 
barely room for him to pass between 
the plank and the seat, and he 
hesitated. 

“Well, what is it, Michaud?” 
asked La Bourdonnaye, looking at 
the man. 

“ A letter for Count Mnizek, sir,” 
the servant replied. 

“ A letter ! ” cried the boy, starting 
and growing blood red. “ How did 
it come ? ” 

The servant, a large-jowled, dull- 
eyed man, hesitated. Then he re- 
membered his bribe, and set his few 
wits to work. 

“ Captain Houdelet brought it,” 
he said, glibly. 

The boy stretched out his hand. 

“ Where is Captain Houdelet ? ” 
asked one of the officers. 

“ With the Prince, sir. He has 
just come from Osterode.” 

“ Ah ! that means the recall,” re- 
marked the aide-de-camp. 


XLbc 1 Re& Star 


155 


Give me the note/' said La 
Bourdonnaye. As he was nearest to 
the door, the request was natural 
enough. The man obeyed, and La 
Bourdonnaye passed it to the boy. 
As he did so Pallisseaux took up the 
dice and tossed. 

‘‘ Wait ! " cried the boy, eagerly. 

I am not ready." 

Your first love letter, Mignon ?" 
sneered Pallisseaux. ‘‘Very well. 
But you ’ll have to show us the note." 
The servant backed to the door. 

“ Michaud ! " called out La Bour- 
donnaye, sharply, “ if you don’t 
invent better lies I shall discharge 
you. You bungling fool ! Captain 
Houdelet will be here in a minute. 
Your story will have its bottom 
kicked out of it then." 

The man stammered, “ Pardon me, 
sir. You are right, sir. I will think 
of another lie," he said. “ It was 
given me by a suttler who re- 
marked ’’ 

“ Go to the devil ! " cried his mas- 
ter. ‘‘ What use is that idiot to me," 
he added, as the man disappeared, 


156 


Zbc IReD Star 


“ if he can’t lie better than that over 
a billet-doux. Well, Mnizek, what 
does the girl say ? ” 

The boy turned his back on the 
men. The moonlight came through 
an opening in the wattles and fell 
on his paper. A look of terror flashed 
into his eyes as he read. A shower 
of laughter and chaff had followed 
his action. Then the next minute 
he swung round, and, facing the 
aides-de-camp, twirled his absent 
moustache. 

Is she pretty ? ” “ Who is she ? ” 
‘‘ What a young devil ! ” ‘‘ What ! 
have you already fascinated the 
wide-hipped frauleins ? ” ‘‘ That 

comes of a baby face ! ” greeted his 
ears as he gazed straight at the group. 

Messieurs, an affaire de coeur,” 
he said, with an audacious smile. 

‘‘ A Jewess in one of the huts ? ” 
asked Pallisseaux, taking up the 
dice. 

Oh, much higher game,” smiled 
the boy. “ But honour forbids my 
saying anything more. Who tosses 
first .? 


XLbc IRcD Star 


157 


“ We shall retire from Konigsberg 
to-morrow/' observed the senior offi- 
cer. “ Your affaire de coeur will be 
brief." 

So much the better. I prefer war 
to love. She 'll weep. But girls have 
often done that for me. — You throw, 
Pallisseaux." 

Give me the note," said La 
Bourdonnaye. “ You know nothing 
of love. I 'll teach you what to do." 

Part with it ! never. Here ! I 
will read what she says. But no 
name, comrades, no name ! " With 
perfect coolness and an untrembling 
hand the boy held up the note and 
began. 

“ Count Mnizek — How did she get 
my name I wonder ? — forgive the de- 
spair and love that forces me to write to 
you — That 's pretty, is n't it ? — 
but " 

Stop," said Pallisseaux, coolly ; 
we don't want any more of that. 
Come ! no more fooling. Attend to 
the dice." 

The boy crumbled the note in 
his left hand, glanced triumphantly 


158 


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around; and then watched Pallisseaux 
as he threw. All the men bent for- 
ward. 

‘‘ Six ! '' remarked Chastanie. 
‘‘ Now, Mnizek.’' 

The boy’s eyes still danced with a 
bright, mischievous light. “ A liba- 
tion to the Fates ! ” he cried, raising 
the cup from the ground and hold- 
ing it over the dice. “ Here, Pallis- 
seaux ! you who don’t believe in the 
gods, see what the Sisters will do 
for me.” 

He tossed, and laughed. The rays 
from all the watching eyes seemed to 
meet on the spot where the dice 
fell. 

“ Five,” said Pallisseaux, coldly. 
“ Your gods — which, by the by, are 
not gods — are asleep.” 

‘‘ No, no ! Only trying my faith,” 
replied the boy, and his eyes turned 
upon Chastanie, who was darting 
keen glances of interest from him to 
Pallisseaux. “ Chastanie, is it not 
so ? ” he asked. 

“ Without doubt,” answered the 
latter. “ The way of all women, 


^be IRcD Star 


159 


hideous or pretty. Ah ! it ’s over 
the plank,” he added, as Pallisseaux 
threw. 

“ Where is it ? Pick it up,” said 
Pallisseaux, resting his hand with the 
dice box heavily on the board. The 
men, among whose legs the dice had 
fallen, bent down to search. 

This comes of too much brandy,” 
remarked the boy, sweetly. Now 
my hand is as steady as a soldier’s 
should be.” But he instantly put it 
under the plank as La Bourdonnaye 
looked at him. 

‘‘ There ! Catch hold ! ” called out 
one of the men, and flung the dice 
at Pallisseaux who caught it flying. 

He tossed and threw six again. 
“What luck,” murmured La Bour- 
donnaye. “ Look sharp, Mignon ! ” 

The boy stretched out his right 
hand. The note still lay crushed in 
his left. He felt as if it burnt like 
fire into his flesh ; every word a 
flame. Pallisseaux gave him the box 
and he threw. 

“ Mon Dieu ! three/’ exclaimed 
Chastanie. 


i6o 


^be IReb Star 


All eyes watched Pallisseaux 
throw. It was one. 

Now, Mnizek, be smart. Call on 
the Fates,’* cried Chastanie. 

Do you want me to win ? ” said 
the boy, his eyes very bright and 
excited. 

^‘Yes, half a dozen pockets do,*’ 
laughed Chastanie. “ Go on.” 

“ There is some one coming to the 
door,” observed La Bourdonnaye, 
turning his face for a moment to- 
wards the curtain. “ A call to head- 
quarters, I expect. Quick, Mnizek, 
let us see this thing out.” 

The boy tossed, gave one swift 
glance at the dice, and sprang to his 
feet. 

‘‘Lost!” broke in a shout from 
the men. “ The kiss, Mignon, the 
kiss ! Stand up, Pallisseaux. Come 
on, little one, pay ! ” 

Pallisseaux shot a look keen but 
triumphant at his comrades. His scar 
was blood red, but his manner showed 
his usual hard, self-controlled air. 
The rug was raised in the midst of 
the uproar and an orderly looked in. 


^be IRcb Star 


i6i 


“ What is it ? What the devil is 
it ? exclaimed La Bourdonnaye, 
excitedly. 

Wanted at headquarters, sir, Cap- 
tain Pallisseaux,’' answered the man. 

Pallisseaux rose to his feet. “ Com- 
ing ! he called out, waving his hand 
to the orderly ; and he turned to the 
boy. 

“ Mignon, pretty Mignon,” he said, 
in his clear measured tone, pay ! ” 
A daring look came into the boy's 
eyes ; his gaze darted hither and 
thither round the hut. Then he 
caught up Pallisseaux’s cloak, swung 
it about the aide-de-camp’s head, 
and with a peal of musical laughter, 
rushed out of the place. A smothered 
oath, and the men’s shouts and laugh- 
ter followed him as he ran across the 
street of the camp. 

Now,” thought the boy, ‘‘this is 
awful. I must meet him. Good God ! ” 
He set off down the slope to the 
pond. The moon- had broken out 
from the clouds and shone on the 
men gathered round the fires. Voices 


i 62 


(Tbe IReb Star 


floated towards him on the still, frosty 
air, and the fragment of a song. 

At the foot of the slope a sentinel 
challenged him. He gave the word 
and hurried by. Then he halted and 
looked across the field, and up at 
the sky, and clenched his hands. 
His progress was made by fits and 
starts ; sometimes he went rapidly, 
but oftener paused ; all the time his 
heart beat as the hare’s who knows 
its pursuers are near. The pond 
widened out before him, scarcely 
distinguishable from the field save 
for the black hole broken through 
the ice for the horses. His feet sank 
through the crust of snow as he 
crossed it steadily, forcing himself 
on while invisible bands would have 
dragged him back. Then up the 
bank he climbed, and paused among 
the trees. 

Pahlen let go his scabbard and 
stretched out his hand. The girl 
whom he was risking his life to save 
stood a few paces from him. The 
moonlight touched her face and the 
folds of her military cloak. 


Zhe 1 Rc 5 Star 


163 


She drew back ; and her movement 
shook the snow from a branch, which 
fell whitening her cap and shoulders. 

For God’s sake, go away ! ” she 
said, a tremor in her voice. ‘‘You 
are in the French camp.” 

“ I only know that you are in it,” 
he answered, in a tone that suddenly 
thrilled her. “ I have come to save 
you.” 

“ Go, go ! ” she repeated, her face 
whitened and scared. “ The picket 
will hear you ! ” 

“ Not till I bring you with me ! 
Not till I have saved you ! ” 

“ From what ? Do you not know ” 
— and her voice shook — “ do you not 
know that by daring to send that note 
you might have betrayed me ! Yes ! 

the men thought I had to tell 

them. By what right ” — suddenly 
stopping and stamping her foot — 
“ by what right are you here ? ” 

“ By a man right. By the right of 
our ride across the snow. By the 
right — yes, by the right of our mar- 
riage.” 

“ Ah ! you dare allude to that ! ” 


164 


ZTbe IReb Star 


Her voice quivered with mingled fear 
and indignation. ‘‘ Go, sir ! That 
insult has not been forgiven yet.’' 

This is my atonement ! ” ex- 
claimed Pahlen. ‘‘ I have come here 
partly because of that act — partly — 
good God ! do you know what they 
call you in the camp ? ” 

A boy — a pretty boy^ — Mignon,” 
she said, half defiantly. “ I can play 
my part. Yes ! ” 

‘‘ They call you 2^ gay little clevil ! — 
you — you, a girl, whose name should 
be sacred to these men. What mid- 
summer madness has seized you that 
this should have happened ! ” 

She had backed in among the 
tangled brushwood till the whitened 
branches looked like a web around 
her. The moonlight shone down 
through the trees on her face. A 
fairy tale of his childhood flashed 
through his mind as he caught the 
starry gleam of her eyes through the 
network of twigs. She was the im- 
prisoned princess, cursed, under an 
evil spell. 

Oh, a high madness ! ” she said. 


ITbe IReb Star 


165 


with a ring of pathos and pride. I 
wear this sword because I am a 
daughter of Poland, and her sons are 
cowards, or asleep.” 

He stretched out his hand impul- 
sively. 

Come with me. Be a woman 
again,” he said, his voice softened 
and pleading. 

No, no ! ” and she quivered. 
“The Red Star — my destiny — has 
called me.” 

“ And I — life, love, hope, your 
womanhood, would drag you back 
from that despair. Listen to my 
entreaty. Leave this cursed camp 
to-night.” 

Her eyes flashed upon him. “ Life, 
love, hope ! What have I to do with 
them ? I gave them the night you 
mocked me to my country. They 
are hers.” 

“ Come — come with me,” he 
pleaded, his tone full of fear and ap- 
peal. “ For God’s sake, come. We 
will talk about this afterwards. Now 
is your only chance of escape.” 

The darkness crept down again as 


i66 


XTbe IReb Star 


he spoke ; till only the shape of her 
head and her half-hidden form could 
be distinguished in the night. Her 
voice rang out without a quaver. 

Escape ! With you ! — a foe twice 
over. These men are my friends — 
the saviours of Poland, while you, 
you ” she broke off. 

Despair seized him. To-morrow 
— a few hours later — the recall might 
come, and the cavalry retire from 
Konigsberg. At the headquarters of 
the French army it would be impos- 
sible to reach her. 

‘‘ Little Countess ” — his tone was 
agitated — “ forget me, forget our 
previous connection. Take me as 
an instrument that can help you to 
escape. You are a girl ; you don’t 
see it ; you don’t understand. But 
it is true you daily risk your life ; 
you are killing — yes, you must be 
killing your modesty. You are im- 
perilling your whole womanhood.” 

There was a moment’s pause, then 
she broke into a laugh. For a second 
the repulsion he had once or twice 
felt for her before, even while she 


Zbc IReD Star 


167 


attracted him, seized Pahlen. This 
was why she had been called the gay 
little devil. She had no shame, no 
heart ; her soul had left her, and she 
was unsexed. 

‘‘ How can you laugh ? '' he said, 
sternly. “ It is true.'' 

He heard the brushwood rustle as 
she moved. 

‘‘ From a man's view," she an- 
swered, and her voice suddenly sank. 

A sigh followed, and the sound 
thrilled him. In a moment he felt 
a wild desire to take her up in his 
arms and carry her away from the 
terrors of the camp. 

‘‘ Countess — Halka, come with 
me," he said. 

In the brief pause that ensued he 
could see her head droop. Then her 
voice reached his ears again clear and 
distinct. 

“ I will not leave the French," she 
said with earnestness. 

‘‘ My God ! " he exclaimed aloud 
to himself, how shall I open her 
eyes ? " 

She moved away. 


i68 


XLbc IReD Star 


‘‘ No, no ! ” he said, passionately. 
“ Don’t leave me ! Not yet — not 
yet, till I have warned you of the 
risks you run.” 

He broke through the underwood 
and stood by her side. His eyes 
sought hers in the dark. 

‘‘ Listen to me, I implore you,” he 
said, bending forward to read her 
face. “ Listen to what I have to tell 
you.” 

Her head was turned aside, but she 
had paused. She felt dismayed and 
angry that he should have power over 
her, that she should be affected by his 
voice, by his presence. Indignantly 
she declared to herself that it was not 
true, but her heart told her that it 
was, and cried out that the knowledge 
was pain. 

‘‘ I insulted you that night,” he 
went on. “Forgive me. Your scorn 
hurt me then, but I deserved it. I 
rode away and said I would forget 
you. But the bond between us held 
me. Then you rode into my life — 
into my heart — in that uniform. I 
recognised you as you awoke, when 


ZTbe IRcb Star 


i6g 


your girl's eyes looked into mine. In 
Murat's camp I wished you dead. 
That was the devil in me, the coward 
you had known — not the real man. 
I saw your little body shot and 
mangled, left on the snow for wolves. 
If there is hell, I saw it then, and I 
vowed to save you. Yes, I vowed that 
only death should prevent me. Your 
danger never left my heart ; and 
Eylau came, and I rode and charged 
and suffered and went through hell 
with you there." 

Her head hung lower still ; the 
feeling that she was a girl, not a 
soldier, arose and deepened. The 
veiled drooping figure of her country 
paled away before a new and not yet 
understood emotion. 

“ Then I followed you here." His 
voice still rang with feeling, but there 
was resolution now in his tone. “ I 
followed you to keep my vow, and I 
shall keep it. Little girl, you do not 
know your" danger yet. You are in 
peril from us. It must soon be known 
in our lines that a Count Mnizek is on 
Murat's staff. That will mean your 


certain discovery, your capture in 
time, your exile for life. And now 
that the armies are lying inactive, 
these men will have time to find you 
out.” He paused, and his tone sud- 
denly hardened. ‘‘ It is astonishing 
that they have not done so already. 
What can they think of you ? Pet 
you as a. pretty boy ? Good God ! 
how can you stand that ? They are 
smitten with blindness and imbecility. 
How long do you think you can de- 
ceive them or act the part ? ” 

He broke off ; his vehemence filled 
the girl with fear lest he should be 
heard, and her heart beat fast from 
varied emotions. 

“ Fly now,” he continued, hurried- 
ly, his voice once more beseeching 
and tender. “ This is the moment 
for escape. To-morrow Murat, the 
staff, some one among the squadrons 
may find you out. The moon is still 
hidden. Not a sentinel can see us 
as we cross the field. The Jews will 
give you clothes. Come ! I implore 
you, come ! ” 

She shrank back, hiding her face in 


XLbc IRcD Star 


171 

her hands. The fire, the tenderness 
in his tone thrilled and frightened 
her. For a second she saw the lost 
possibilities of her life, the gifts that 
should have been hers which had 
crumbled instead to dust. 

You hurt me. Go ! she almost 
moaned. You are twice my foe — 
my country's foe, my heart’s foe. I 
am not dead. I am a woman still. 
God called me. My star steeled my 
heart. I shall follow my fate.” 

“ Not while I have a voice and 
sword to hinder it. I will break 
your fate,” said Pahlen. ‘‘ Sweet, 
come with me. I have the right. 
I shall protect you.^’ 

In an instant she dropped her 
hands and held them out as if to 
drive off some invisible foe. 

“ No right ! No right ! ” she said 
with a sob. ‘‘ Only the right of an 
insult ! ” 

The blood rushed to his face. He 
could have caught her in his arms 
and held her fast from the men, her 
comrades, the Frenchmen in the 
camp. 


172 XLbc IRe^ Star 

“You shall not escape/’ he said 
with passion. “You shall not go 
back to the staff. I have paid for 
the insult now. I have taken my life 
in my hand. I give it to you. It is 
yours, and, since it is yours, you shall 
come with me.” 

She fought again with the new 
bright foe that had sprung up before 
her, that had sprung out of her heart, 
and the fatalism of her race helped 
her to conquer. No will, not even 
her own, could alter her destiny, she 
believed. Her voice was clear and 
controlled as she answered him. 

“ I will not leave the camp. Let 
me be killed ! When my work is 
done God will take me. You, Count, 
are daring to use the world’s belief ; 
I am not. I never shall be your 
wife ! ” 

Her tone silenced him for a mo- 
ment, but her peril and the passion 
in his own heart stirred him to again 
plead with her. 

“ If I use the world’s belief it is 
because the horror of your position 
fills me with mortal fear for you,” 


^be IReb Star 


173 


he said with strong emotion. You 
are my wife in the sight of all men. 
To-night I shall, I dare to claim the 
right of protecting, of saving you.’’ 

“To your own ruin?” she said, 
with something like wistful wonder. 

“ The world will ask for me some 
day. Here I am dead to you. 

Another Eylau ” she broke off 

suddenly. “ Oh, God ! how won- 
derful that was ! Oh, God ! the 
dead ! ” 

She shuddered and burst into 
sobs ; he laid his hand upon hers, 
but she shook it off and recovered 
herself. 

“ The darkness lasts,” he said, im- 
ploringly. “ Come.” 

“ No ! No ! ” she answered with 
sudden emphasis, and her hand fell 
on the hilt of her sword. In an 
instant the girl became transformed. 
It was as if the accursed war-spirit, 
the Zeitgeist of those years, had 
sprung into her heart and trampled 
down the woman there. All the 
hopes she had hoped, all the dreams 
she had dreamed for her country 


174 


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leapt up before her now. She was 
again heroic and ready to die. 

“ Come ! ” he pleaded once more, 
his hand feeling for hers. 

Never,” she said, her voice thrill- 
ing and low. Never. I trust in 
God. Good-bye ! ” 

She turned before he could guess 
her resolve, and fled, breaking her 
way through the thicket till she 
gained the pond. I am safe, safe, 
now,” she whispered to herself as she 
ran along the ice. ‘‘ Never, never 
again shall he make me feel a girl ! ” 
But he had followed her, unable to 
accept the fact that she was running 
back to her own destruction. 

“Halka! Halka ! ” he cried in 
despair ; but no voice answered him. 

She had got beyond his power ; 
not even the dread of detection could 
make her alter her purpose. She was 
flying to the camp as to a harbour 
of refuge. 

“ Gone, gone ; she is lost ! ” he 
said to himself bitterly, and, stand- 
ing still, gazed blankly through the 
trees. To him she seemed like one 


ZTbe IReD Star 


175 


under the curse of the gods, driven 
along the path of doom. 

After many minutes had passed he 
took his scabbard in his hand, and 
went towards the edge of the wood. 
A jingle of bridle reins and accoutre- 
ments rang out from the left. He 
heard the vedette’s challenge and 
the reply ; then a white gleam of 
moonlight cut across the darkness. 

His failure held his thoughts ; the 
girl’s peril filled him with despair. 
He stepped forward, indifferent to 
the fact that his shadow fell like a 
blot of ink on the moonlight ground. 
He went slowly across the field, till 
a voice from the rear ordered him to 
halt, and dispelled the mental inert- 
ness that had fallen over him. In 
an instant life and liberty became 
sweet ; he stopped, looked back, and 
waved his hand, calling out the name 
of a dragoon regiment and the num- 
ber of a squadron. 

There was a hedge at the end of 
the field, and beyond that the road 
and a thicket. His escape depended, 
he knew, upon the clouds hiding the 


176 


XLbc IReD Star 


moon, which shone with penetrating 
brilliancy. He dared not walk fast, 
conscious that the patrol watched 
him. The voice rang out imperiously 
again, and now his pace increased. 
The next instant a bullet whistled 
over his head. He drew his sword, 
ran forward and up the bank as a 
second shot flew by his cheek. In 
another moment the patrol galloped 
up, and he was surrounded. 


VII. 

E arly on the following morning 
a group of officers cantered 
through the camp, and drew up at a 
point where the ground rose into a 
slight eminence. A feeble sun cast 
a white light on the fortifications of 
the town. There the gunners watched 
with interest the movements of the 
French. In the lines of the latter 
all the pickets had been called in, 
and the men of the advance guard 
were already in their saddles. The 
pretence of besieging Konigsberg 
was at an end. An Imperial order 
had come, commanding Murat to re- 
tire with the cavalry to Osterode. 

The Prince sat a few paces in front 
of his personal staff, talking to two 
general officers, as he looked at the 
fortification through a field-glass. 
He rode a dark bay, with splendid 
housings ; a scarlet cloak, that hung 
177 


12 


178 


Zbc IReD Star 


over his shoulders, only half hid his 
extravagantly-trimmed tunic, which 
was rich with gold and expensive fur. 
Various coloured feathers also trem- 
bled in his hat. His dark eyes were 
keen and bold, yet jovial too ; and 
the man bore himself with the as- 
sured air that twelve years of success 
and the prospect of a kingdom had 
given him. 

The officers of his personal staff 
talked in lower tones behind him. 
Their eyes, too, rested on Konigsberg 
with the exception of Pallisseaux’s, 
which were turned every now and 
then upon the camp. 

“ The little rascal is taking his 
time,'' he observed, tightening his 
reins as his horse became restive. 
“ He shall pay though." 

“ What a young devil ! What 
adroitness," returned La Bourdon- 
naye. “ I knew he 'd wriggle out of 
it like an eel. What the devil can 
be his reason, though ? He 's smart 
and amusing, but there 's something 
odd about the boy." 

‘‘We have spoilt him," remarked 


Ubc TReD Star 


179 


the senior officer of the staff. ‘‘At 
least, you and Chastanie have. Send 
him back to Poniatowski’s Lancers. 
Discipline 's slack there.” 

“ It is hard, I know, deuced hard, 
for you, Pallisseaux,” said Chastanie, 
smiling under his yellow moustache. 
“ But what would you have ? The 
money was fairly won. You failed 
to make the boy kiss any one.” 

“Very good,” said Pallisseaux, 
coldly, his keen eyes turned again 
on the camp. “ The money is yours. 
I have paid you all. But I mean, 
when we have leisure, to teach young 
Mnizek the first principles of honour. 
He shall have a lesson. By heavens ! 
he shall.” His clear voice never 
altered its even modulation, but there 
was a nasty look in his eyes as he 
paused. 

“ I shall be present at the lesson,” 
said La Bourdonnaye. “ Mignon has 
amused me, and his tricks are pretty. 
He ’ll make a man yet, never fear. 
The boy has nerve, and is ready for 
work.” 

“ It was cleverly done,” grinned 


i8o 


Jibe IReD Star 


another of the staff. “ Smart boy ; 
he ought to be a Frenchman. He 
swung that cloak round your head in 
a trice. You were drunk, too, Pallis- 
seaux, that gave him a chance. But 
we ’ll make him pay when we get to 
Osterode.” 

Pallisseaux raised one hand to his 
much-pointed moustache 

‘‘Yes, it was very clever, very 
smart,” he said. “ But the young 
devil shall learn another trick.” 

As he spoke his eyes went once 
more towards the camp. Coming 
from it, right across the field, marched 
a small party of soldiers. They were 
leading a prisoner straight towards 
the hillock. Pallisseaux’s eyes swept 
them for a moment with a cold, 
indifferent glance. 

“ The spy,” remarked Chastanie, 
looking in the same direction, “ The 
man was caught within the lines last 
night.” 

“ The Prince wishes to question 
him,” said La Bourdonnaye. “ A 
Russian Jew, I believe.” 

No one was interested in the spy. 


Zbc IReD Star 


i8i 


Most of the staff looked at their chief, 
and commented on the Imperial order. 
Meanwhile the guards and their 
prisoner drew near. 

Pahlen’s hands were tied, and he 
walked between two soldiers. The 
colourless, bleak day, and the sight 
of the knot of men drawn up on tlie 
hillock, filled him with a curious feel- 
ing, as if he were being brought to 
see something that was quite apart 
from his own life, and in which he 
was in no way concerned. 

He had passed a bitter night. The 
conviction that he had staked and 
lost his life for a girl Avho had delib- 
erately chosen her own ruin was a 
hard reflection. What he had once 
dreaded so keenly had happened ; 
she had ruined him, though that ruin 
had come in a different form from 
what he had pictured it would be, 
and in a more terrible measure. To 
die as a spy was a cruel end ; and it 
was her perversity that had brought 
about his fate. All night he had sat 
thinking over his own folly and hers. 

As he drew near the Prince his 


i 82 


TTbe IReb Star 


mood changed. The inability to 
grasp the terrible certainty of his 
position which had given him that 
curious feeling of distance from his 
surroundings passed, and he felt all 
his faculties suddenly sharpened. He 
became keenly alert, and conscious 
that he was drawing near the most 
supreme moment in his life. 

He began to think of death, and 
tried to realise that he and time and 
all that time held were about to part. 
But he felt with horror that he could 
not, that eternity had no meaning for 
the quick, breathing body when every 
rivet of life was still strong. His eyes 
wandered from the group of officers 
to the fields and the road and the 
huts standing against the background 
of the birch-wood, and then out and 
on to the pale blue of the horizon. 
Every nerve was strung to its fullest 
tension, and he felt himself most hor- 
ribly alive ; and yet he knew that in 
an hour’s time he should most cer- 
tainly be dead. He wondered if 
what he was suffering was sheer 
physical fear ; whether he was a 


^be IReb Star 


183 


coward ; whether his courage, which 
had borne him often into danger and 
made him risk his life again and again, 
had left him now. Then he thought 
that it was vitality in his body, the 
life that ran so strong and young 
within him that made him dread 
death. What would the shock be 
like when it was suddenly wrenched 
from its hold ? Sick men slipped 
down into the Dark with each bond 
that held them weakened and loos- 
ened ; but here would be a thrill, a 
horror, an unutterable moment. It 
was the change in an instant from 
what was known to the unknown 
that made the flesh which did not 
wish to die shiver and recoil. 

And yet he had renounced, and 
renounced without a moment’s hesi- 
tation, his one chance of keeping the 
life in his body. If he were to declare 
that he had entered the camp to claim 
his wife, and were to tell Murat 
Halka’s sex, there was a possibility 
that he might be believed, and not 
shot. But the power that had forced 
him to protect the girl, almost against 


184 


^be IReb Star 


his will, made him now know that he 
must still shelter her, even at the cost 
of his life. And the irony of it all 
was that though he had run into peril 
to entreat her to leave the camp, he 
dared not for his honour’s sake betray 
her to Murat, though that betrayal 
would bring about what he desired. 

His manner was outwardly cool, 
and nothing in his face showed the 
thoughts that rent his soul, as his eyes 
again searched the men around and 
behind the Prince, their uniforms 
trimmed with expensive furs and 
astrachan, glittered with massy knots 
of gold and decorations. The per- 
sonal staff looked to him the reckless, 
dice-tossing men that they were. As 
he glanced from face to face there 
rose up in his heart a feeling of blank 
amazement that Halka had spent 
three weeks in their society and had 
not been discovered. The Jew’s 
words flashed across him, and his 
thoughts hardened as he recalled 
them. He felt for the moment as if 
the shame she should have known 
had seized him. 


IReO Star 


185 


The emotion, however, was so tran- 
sient that it appeared immediately 
afterwards to him an absolutely 
stupid and unnecessary feeling. His 
thoughts seemed to cross and recross 
one contradicting the other, and all 
in apparent confusion ; yet they were 
strangely clear to his soul as if it were 
looking on at a scene apart from itself. 
He felt as if he had two individu- 
alities, and that one, with an even, 
balanced judgment, was weighing the 
other. Yes,” he said to himself, 
‘‘ I am jealous of and angry with these 
men and with her ; but what folly 
it all is, for here is death.” 

His gaze finally rested on Murat. 
He was conscious of feeling inter- 
ested, yet half amused, as he looked 
at the bedizened figure of the great 
cavalryman. Then all other thoughts 
passed as he remembered that the 
Prince held his life in his hand. 

His presence was announced by 
the officer in command of the guard. 
Murat, however, took no notice ; he 
was speaking in a loud, rather jovial, 
tone to his two companions. 


‘‘Yes, by God ! I could have done 
it,'* he said — “ done it at the sword’s 
point. I took Prenzlow at the gallop, 
and Lasalle rode into Sletton. What ? 
You think it impossible ? ” 

“ I fear so, your highness. The 
Prussians opened their gates. The 
Russians know how to use their guns,” 
answered one of the generals. 

Murat’s eyes fell on Pahlen. “ Ah ! 
the spy,” he exclaimed, and his tone 
and manner changed. “ Bring him 
forward. What does he say he is ? 
An officer in the Emperor of Russia’s 
horse guards ? ” 

“ So he states, your highness,” re- 
plied the officer. 

“ And in the disguise of one of my 
dragoons. Well, you sir, what is 
your name ? What made you dare to 
enter my lines ? ” 

“ I ought to speak now,” thought 
Pahlen, “ but what can I say ? ” His 
eyes met steadily the bold dark ones 
fixed on him. 

“ What number of men and guns 
have you got in Konigsberg ? ” de- 
manded the Prince, abruptly. 


XLbc 1ReD Star 


187 


I do not know. I have not been 
in the town,*’ replied Pahlen, and was 
surprised to find his own voice so 
cool. 

‘‘ It will be safer for you to answer 
my questions, sir. Has Benningsen 
retired beyond the Pregel ? ” 

Pahlen scarcely heard the ques- 
tion; his eyes had wandered to the 
Prince’s staff. Where was Halka ? 
Why had the men not found her out ? 
What idiots they were ! A fool might 
know no boy spoke and looked like 
that. Mingled with these thoughts 
was a feverish wish to get the whole 
thing over ; this interval was torture 
to his soul. Suddenly he remembered 
the question ; that it had been asked 
by the man who had power to kill or 
save him. 

I was wounded on the Lower 
Vistula,” he replied slowly, almost 
mechanically. ‘‘ A peasant sheltered 
me in his cottage. I assumed this 
disguise in order to avoid capture 
when following our army.” 

The Prince scarcely attended to 
his words. He was impatient to 


i88 


XLbc iRe^ Star 


learn what news he could of the 
Russians, and he interrupted him. 

‘‘ Give me the exact . number of 
your men,'’ he said sternly. And the 
losses to your battalions at Eylau. 
Also information as to what army you 
have got beyond the Pregel.” 

These questions seemed a super- 
fluous insult to Pahlen. The desire 
to end the scene rushed over him 
again. He remained silent. 

Murat repeated his inquiries, and 
in a still sterner tone. His eyes rested 
on Pahlen with an expression that 
showed his mind was fixed upon the 
details of his questions ; that he had 
no other interest in his prisoner ; no 
human feeling that the latter’s life 
was at his disposal. 

If you give me correct replies you 
shall not be shot,” he said. But his 
tone showed absolute indifference to 
Pahlen’s fate. 

It flashed upon Pahlen that some 
in his place would fling back the gift 
of life in the giver’s teeth when it 
was shackled with such conditions. 
But how could a man attitudinise, 


XLbc IReD Star 


189 

act bad tragedy in the face of 
death ? 

‘‘ Answer the Prince, sir ! '' 
remarked one of the generals, sternly. 

The words set the smouldering fire 
in his heart into a blaze. He looked 
up ; his eyes glittered with a cold, 
hard light ; rage and scorn rang in 
his answer. 

Prince Murat, I am neither spy 
nor traitor,” he replied, holding him- 
self erect. 

‘‘ Think again, sir, or you will be 
shot,” returned the General, in a 
threatening tone. 

‘‘ Do you refuse the offer ? ” asked 
Murat. 

There was no reply. 

‘‘ Attend to me ! ” exclaimed the 
Prince, running Pahlen all over with 
his eyes. “ You are a spy, a deserter, 
and a man with a price. I am will- 
ing to buy your information. If you 
care for your life give me correct 
and instant answers.” 

‘‘ You mistake me for some one 
else,” answered Pahlen, passion and 
shame in his face. ‘‘ I am a Russian 


Zbe 1 Rc 5 Star 


190 


noble, a captain in the Tzar’s horse 
guards.” 

Murat shrugged his shoulders ; his 
eyes were pitilesss. 

‘‘ Once more I give you the chance,” 
he said, grimly. “ Do you refuse ? ” 

Pahlen’s gaze had never left the 
face of the great, bedizened soldier, 
the representative of swift and stern 
military law, his eyes gleamed and 
narrowed, then a single word burst 
from his lips. 

“Yes ! ” he said, as if he had torn 
it from his throat. 

Murat made a slight movement. 
“Take the prisoner away,” he re- 
marked, in a cool, business-like tone. 
As the guards closed round Pahlen 
he turned to one of his companions 
and commented on a point in the 
defences of the town. This indiffer- 
ence filled Pahlen with a chill ; and 
yet he knew that his case was only 
an incident of war ; and that no one 
ever pitied a spy ; that Murat’s cal- 
lousness was but that of a man who 
had faced and defied death in a dozen 
bloody wars. 


XTbe IReb Star 


191 

Each step now took him nearer to 
the end. The foolish farce, the mo- 
ments wasted in inquiry were over. 
Death beckoned, waited for him in 
the men's barrels. And again the 
feeling of vitality dismayed him. He 
saw and heard all the things of life 
about him — the white fields, the walls 
of the town behind which his friends 
lay, the living men and all the stirring 
noises and sounds of voices in the 
camp — with a keenness of vision and 
hearing such as he had never known 
before. His senses refused to accept 
the fact that all those accented notes 
of life and scenes were to disappear 
in a few minutes, that his own exist- 
ence was to be cut off. 

The guards had lead him half way 
down the hillock when a bright-faced, 
smiling boy galloped past and saluted 
Murat. Pahlen started — and his eyes 
contracted. Half involuntarily he 
drew up as he saw the smile freeze 
on the boy's lips and a look of horror 
leap to his eyes. The guards pushed 
him forward, but he heard the gasp 
and saw the convulsive grasp of the 


192 


XLbc IReO Star 


hand on ihe rein, and a dark red 
colour rushed over his own face. 

The boy sat frozen in his saddle, 
his eyes wide open, fixed beyond 
Murat and the staff, who looked at 
him with gathering surprise. All his 
soul was in a tumult. A spy ! And 
he had not even heard that one had 
been taken. Why had this awful 
thing happened ? The Prince, Pallis- 
seaux, the hawk-eyed men had their 
eyes upon him. Of what were they 
thinking ! Had they any suspicion ? 
They were whispering. Yes ! there 
behind the Prince, Chastanie’s keen 
eyes were upon him as he bent tow- 
ards Pallisseaux. And the others ! 
The major whose smile had always 
seemed to have a hidden meaning — 
La Bourdonnaye, who had looked at 
his hands last night. Each one — all 
these men whom every hour he had 
secretly feared. Was it here in the 
full blaze of day that they were to 
know? No ! he would die first. 

Then it flashed upon him that there 
was no time for hesitation or dainti- 
ness in the crisis. His decision must 


ttbe IReb Star 


193 


be made that instant if he was to 
keep the soul in Pahlen’s body. It 
was death either way ; his spiritually 
or Pahlen’s life, and he must choose 
between the two at once. 

Murat’s voice reached his ears as 
from a distance. He started and 
stared at the Prince ; on every side 
it seemed to him that he was raked 
by eyes. Mechanically he spoke. 

‘‘Your highness” — his voice was 
hollow and broken — “ your highness, 

the advance guard May I inform 

you, sir, that the prisoner about to be 
shot is an officer in the Emperor of 
Russia’s horse guards.” 

“ His report was true, then,” said 
Murat with indifference. 

“ Well, Mnizek, why does General 
D’Hautville not march ? ” 

“ He is about to, sir,” the boy’s 
voice again broke off, then a keen 
note of entreaty rushed into his tone. 
“ Your highness, he is Count Pahlen, 
not a spy. I implore you save his life.” 

The Prince looked surprised ; he 
searched the boy’s face for a moment 

before he replied. 

13 


194 


TLbc 1Re^ Star 


Finish your report,” he said 
shortly. 

‘‘ It is true,” was the answer ; the 
boy's eyes glittered, his breath came 
short and hard. His comrades 
stirred in their saddles. Both La 
Bourdonnaye and Chastanie tried to 
hide the smile that crept under their 
moustaches. Pallisseaux fixed him 
with a bold, searching gaze ; the rest 
of the aides-de-camps watched with 
half-surprised, half-amused glances 
to see what mad trick the boy they 
had petted and spoilt was about to 
do. 

“Your report?” repeated the 
Prince. 

“ General D'Hautville is about to 
march with the advance guard.” 
The words were broken and hurried, 
the boy stopped short. Then, as if 
he had forgotten the rest of his 
report, he suddenly cried out in a 
tone of acute pain and terror, “ Prince 
Murat, I would not lie to you. The 
prisoner is not a spy. He is not. I 
know it. He is an honourable 
officer. I have met him in Russia. 


Zbc IReD Star 


195 


1 ask you — 1 implore you spare his 
life/' 

His manner and agitated face ar- 
rested Murat’s attention. He looked 
at the boy sternly for a moment. 
Yet wild and reckless as his tricks 
had been with the staff, he knew he 
would not dare to play them off on 
him. A glance showed him also that 
his suspicion that the boy was drunk 
was incorrect. 

He is a spy,” he replied. “ No- 
thing can be clearer than his quiet. 
He was found in the camp in a 
French uniform and must be shot.” 

The boy cast a terrified glance 
over his shoulder. Then his eyes 
felt scathed by lightning, and he 
sprang off his horse. 

‘‘ Good God, sir, you are about to 
kill an innocent man,” he exclaimed. 
A frown gathered on Murat’s brow, 
and a jingle of steel rang through 
the group of men behind him. 

“ He had better look out,” whis- 
pered La Bourdonnaye to the man 
nearest to him. ‘‘ Young fool ! he is 
going too far.” 


ig6 Uhc 1Re& St^r 


“ Ten thousand francs that he has 
the audacity to play it out. I ’ll back 
little Mignon. Mon Dieu, yes,” was 
the reply. 

“ Re-mount, sir ! ” said Murat, 
angrily. What does this mean ? ” 

‘‘ A life ! an innocent life ! ” cried 
the boy. How shall I make you 
believe me. Great God ! It will be 
murder if he is shot ! I shall have 
done it. I shall have murdered him. 
How can I save him — your highness 
— I implore you ” 

His voice sank, he clasped his 
hands together in anguish. 

The man is a spy without doubt,” 
Murat remarked, turning to the 
two generals. ‘‘ But unless Count 
Mnizek is mad, he must have some 
strong reason for his singular behav- 
iour. I shall inquire into this.” 

“ I strongly recommend your high- 
ness to do so,” replied one of the 
officers, significantly. “ I have never 
seen any reason why we should trust 
these Poles.” 

Murat called for the officer first 
on duty, and La Bourdonnaye rode 


^he IReD Star 


197 


forward. As he galloped down the 
hillock to delay the execution the 
boy grew white as death. The blood 
throbbed wildly in his veins ; he 
heard, as from a distance, the Prince 
demand an explanation of his con- 
duct. 

But he could not reply. No co- 
herent sentence would come to his 
lips. His terrified senses alone 
grasped the fact that Pahlen had 
been respited for a minute, and 
that he had to save him. To his 
eyes the scene appeared to be made 
up of snow, a pale blue sky, a con- 
fused glitter of uniforms, with one 
scarlet blot, the Prince’s cloak, the 
centre of it all. 

‘‘ Are you drunk, aide-de-camp ? 
Why do you not answer his high- 
ness ? ” said one of the generals, 
harshly. 

Still his lips refused to speak. 
The men’s glances pierced him like 
points of steel. A wild desire to 
turn and run away from them filled 
his soul. But the knowledge press- 
ing into his heart — eating into hi3 


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life — that he alone kept back the 
balls from riddling Pahlen’s body, 
held him frozen to the spot. 

Explain this matter at once, 
sir ! ” exclaimed Murat. “ Give me 
your reason for saying the prisoner 
is not a spy.’' 

His tone and manner compelled 
an answer. 

“Your highness,” and the words 
seemed forced on his lips, “ he is 
not — he is Count Pahlen of the 
Russian guards.” 

Murat’s reply was short and sharp. 

“ A friend of yours ?” 

“ No friend of mine.” The answer 
came as if torn from the boy. 

“ If not a spy, what brought him to 
the camp ? ” 

“ To — see me.” The young aide- 
de-camp’s head dropped, his tone 
was despairing. 

“ Yo u / ” 

“Yes, highness.” 

“ Pray why ? ” 

“ Because — because — to speak to 
me.” 

“No lies, sir, or I shall put you 


tTbe IRcb Star 


199 


under arrest. What did he say to 
you ? 

He asked me to leave your 
service.” 

Why ? ” 

‘‘ He thought I was — I was too 
young to be a soldier. He said the 
Russians would capture me.” 

An incredulous look shone in 
every man's eyes ; Murat's face grew 
dark, and so did both the generals. 
Every man present believed the boy 
had lied. Chastanie and three or 
four others were conscious of a dis- 
appointment. They had rated the 
lad's power of lying at a higher point 
than he now showed himself capable 
of reaching ; and the lack of all his 
usual audacity, his utter breakdown, 
gave them a sense of having been 
defrauded. 

“ Count Mnizek, do you expect 
me to believe this statement ? ” said 
the Prince, with rising temper. 
‘‘ Either you are drunk, sir, or daring 
to impose upon me. Have you no 
other explanation to offer ? ” 

The boy's hands tightened to- 


200 


Zbc IRet) Star 


gather. “ Your highness, if you will 
only believe me ! It is true ! True 
as life or death ! He came to warn 
me.” 

To the men who looked at him 
he seemed a mere hysterical, sobbing 
boy. A wave of disgust spread 
through the group. He had fallen 
in an hour from a bright, audacious 
lad, to a nerveless emotional creature. 
No one, not even La Bourdonnaye, 
who had returned, felt any sympathy 
for him. 

I ask you again,” said Murat, 
sternly ; ‘‘ have you anything further 
to say ? ” 

Yes, yes, to beg — to implore you 
to save Count Pahlen’s life ! ” 

Give up your sword, sir. I put 
you under arrest. As to the Russian 
he shall be shot. You have held 
communication with a spy, and shall 
be tried by court-martial at Os- 
terode.” 

Murat’s quick temper was fully 
roused ; his face was red and angry 
as he spoke. The boy’s eyes widened, 
and his voice had fhe treble ring of 


ITbe IReb Star 


201 


a woman whose soul is in anguish as 
he cried out. 

“ Take my life if you like ! But 
you shall not — you dare not — Oh, 
God! you shall not kill Basil Vas- 
silievitch ! Not now ! Not now ! ” 

‘‘Take his sword,'' said Murat, in 
a loud, angry voice. 

The boy's hands rushed to his face 
for a moment. “ Good God ! " he 
thought, “ will nothing but that make 
them believe me. Nothing but that I " 
Then they fell away from his pallid 
face, and he looked up. But not till 
he saw the aide-de-camp about to 
start to give the order for Pahlen to 
be shot was he able to speak the 
words that were like a sentence of 
death to himself. His body thrilled 
as if in mortal agony. 

“Your highness," he gasped. 
“ What I said was true — before God 
and all the Saints it was true — but 
there was more — I will tell you — 
but keep La Bourdonnaye — La Bour- 
donnaye, wait — listen — I will tell the 
Prince all. Oh — God — why will you 
look at me ! Count Pahlen came to 


202 


Zbc IReD Star 


see me — me — me — because I am his 
wife ” 

Her voice died away, but she saw 
the sudden start of the men and heard 
their astonished gasps. Then the next 
moment she experienced a feeling as 
if in speaking she had died and the 
pain was past. 

For half a minute no one spoke, 
then Murat swore and started so 
violently in his saddle that he set 
his horse curvetting. A woman ? 
By God ! a woman ! a woman on my 
staff ! ” he exclaimed. 

A woman ! ” echoed Pallisseaux, 
as he and the other aides-de-camp 
stared in blank amazement at her. 

Great Heavens ! that explains it 
all,’* he added, gasping. 

No one spoke again for a moment ; 
every man was struck dumb by the 
sheer marvel of the thing. Every face 
was turned on the girl ; every eye 
searched her face and figure. 

Her gaze rested on the sky as she 
stood rigid before them, unable to 
speak. In an instant each man knew 
that her words were true, that it was 


XTbe IReb Stau 


203 


a woman who had played the boy 
for three weeks on the staff. As 
conviction sprang upon them, all in 
a moment Chastanie leant back and 
burst into a loud, long laugh. The 
sound broke the spell of blank as- 
tonishment ; the situation in all its 
bearings rushed upon the men ; ad- 
miration, amusement, eager interest 
leapt into their gaze. A dozen scab- 
bards clinked on a dozen spurs as 
they bent forward in their saddles ; 
their laughter rang across the field 
to where Pahlen waited, suffering 
mental torture as keen as death. 

Murat had joined for a moment 
in the mirth. But his surprise had 
merged into something like anger. 
He feared the laughter of the Emperor 
and the army ; the situation struck 
him as being quite as absurd as it 
was extraordinary. Nevertheless, the 
girl's courage forced his admiration. 

He looked down at her from be- 
tween his horse’s ears, the admiration 
of the soldier mingling with the an- 
noyance of the man. 

Who are you, girl ? What mad- 


204 


Zbc IReD Star 


ness made you play this trick ? ” he 
said, half roughly. 

She made no reply ; still standing 
with her white face and shamed eyes 
fixed on the sky — the sky that would 
not fall and hide her. Murat turned 
to his staff. His half-angry eyes ran 
over their faces. Every aide-de-camp 
put on a blank official expression. 

“ Your staff has been singularly 
blind, your highness,’' remarked one 
of the generals, with a grin. ‘‘ There 
has been no connivance, I suppose ? ” 
Gentlemen,” exclaimed Murat, 
sternly, “ had any of you guessed 
this ? ” 

‘‘No, your highness,” replied the 
senior-officer of the staff. “ None of 
us.” 

“ No, sir, none of us, none of us,” 
repeated the rest of the men. 

“ Well,” said Murat, half scornfully, 
“ I gave you credit for keener wits 
and sharper eyes than you seem to 
possess. You will be but little use on 
my staff if you can be imposed upon 
by a girl ! She might have been a 
spy herself, and you would not have 


ttbe 1 l?e 5 Star 


205 


known it/' Then he swung round in 
his saddle and looked again at Halka. 

‘‘ Pallisseaux," he said, sharply, 
“ bring up the Russian." 

The aide-de-camp rode out of the 
group, and leaning slightly to one 
side, smiled down at the girl. 

‘‘ Forgive my blindness, Mignon," 
he whispered, flashing his eyes upon 
her as he went by. Then he sped 
down the hillock muttering to him- 
self, Fools, idiots ! We might have 
known by the kiss ! " 

Pahlen had guessed that Halka 
was pleading for him when the 
respite came. But he did not think 
that even to save his life she would 
reveal her sex. He knew he had no 
claim, no right to expect her to make 
such a sacrifice. He knew, too, what 
an agony of shame the confession 
would cost her. So he had stood 
waiting in horrible suspense while 
his guards laughed and talked. The 
thud of Pallisseaux's horse’s hoofs in 
the snow rang in his ears as the sig- 
nal that hope was over. Halka had 
failed, and he must now die. Then 


2o6 


^be IReb Star 


in an instant his courage was roused, 
and drawing himself up he waited 
with a fearless air for what seemed 
the inevitable moment. 

Pallisseaux drew rein a few yards 
from the party, and his hard, light 
blue eyes swept Pahlen and his 
guards. 

‘‘ Bring the prisoner before the 
Prince ! he called out : and as the 
blood sprang up Pahlen’s face, he 
turned and galloped away. 

The soldiers grinned. One of 
them, a man who had been a priest 
before the Revolution, began to 
joke. 

“ Ha, ha, my brave spy,” he said, 
rolling his bloodshot eyes, ‘‘ I would 
have shriven you just now. Wait, 
wait, there ’ll be time enough for the 
devil’s mass yet.” 

‘‘ Hold your tongue, rascal ! ” 
roared the sergeant. And the party 
fell into order, and led Pahlen back 
to the hillock. 

As he looked up the rise and saw 
Halka standing rigid and stony-eyed 
before the Prince and all the watch- 


XLbc 1 Re^ Star 


207 


ing men, a light sprang into his own 
eyes. 

“ She has told,’' he instantly 
thought, and was conscious only of 
a passion of shame and pity for her. 

Pallisseaux rode down the slope to 
meet them. 

‘‘ Halt ! ” he ordered ; ‘‘ the pris- 
oner is to advance alone.” 

He walked his horse up the hillock 
by Pahlen’s side as the latter stepped 
forward, glancing askance at him as 
he twisted his moustache. 

Murat wore a less stern air. As 
a jovial, gallant soldier the silent, 
stricken figure of the girl had ap- 
pealed to his chivalry. His first 
annoyance had passed ; her bravery 
had won his respect, and he looked 
keenly, but with an air now of hu- 
man interest, at Pahlen. 

‘‘ Well, sir, I learn your story is 
true,” he said abruptly. ‘‘ Count 
Pahlen, of the Tzar’s horse guards, 
you said ? ” 

‘‘Yes, Prince,” said Pahlen, his 
own danger forgotten, every thought 
fixed on the girl, a passion of longing 


2o8 


tbc IReD Star 


to hide her from the Prince and his 
staff raging in his heart. 

‘‘You see this officer here, this 
aide-de-camp, continued Murat, 
while a grin went round the men, 
sober generals and all. “ Do you 
know him ? 

“ Yes, your highness."' 

“ Is this girl your wife ? ” said 
Murat, suddenly. The grin widened 
on Pallisseaux’s face, and on those 
of one or two others. Pahlen's eyes 
flashed. 

“Your highness, you have learnt 
this lady’s secret,” he said, his voice 
like ice. “ A prince of your known 

chivalry but Murat interrupted 

him. 

“ No one shall insult the girl,” he 
exclaimed. “ She has the courage 
and heart of a man. But, in the 
name of the Devil, how has this thing 
happened ? ” 

“ Am I to explain, sir ? ” 

“ Yes, and quickly ; my squadrons 
are retiring.” 

Pahlen looked straight at the 
Prince, his heart beating fiercely at 


ttbc 1Re5 Star 


209 


the knowledge that Halka was the 
point for every man's eyes. His 
tone, however, was cool, clear, and 
decisive. 

This lady is my wife, the Coun- 
tess Pahlen,” he said, standing rigid. 
“ Our marriage had not been of our 
own choosing. We parted after the 
ceremony. I learnt lately that she 
was serving on your staff, and my 
object in visiting your camp last 
night was to rescue her." 

Is it known to the Russians that 
she is on my staff ? " 

No. God forbid ! " said Pahlen. 

What fired the girl ? What was 
her name and rank ? " 

God knows what fired her. She 
belongs to a noble Polish family. I 
prefer to keep her name a secret." 

‘‘ Very well, sir ; but we are French- 
men, and should not have betrayed 
it. Honour is as dear to us as glory. 
However, n’importe ! As to you, sir, 
like other men you have risked your 
life for a woman’s sake. We French 
are chivalrous and admire courage, 
and I grant you your liberty. Here, 


210 


^be IReb Star 


Lieutenant Mnizek, my brave girl 
aide-de-camp, cut your husband’s 
bonds. I give you his life.” 

She neither moved nor appeared 
to hear him, and La Bourdonnaye 
sprang off his horse. Unclasping his 
cloak, he flung it over her shoulders. 
His handsome dark eyes looked into 
hers with bold admiration. 

Take it, Mignon, my pretty com- 
rade,” he said, in a tone of mingled 
sentiment and kindness, and lingered 
by her for a moment. 

‘‘ Your highness,” he added, ad- 
dressing Murat. Permit me to carry 
out your order and cut the cords.” 

Murat nodded, and as La Bour- 
donnaye severed the rope that bound 
Pahlen’s hands, the Prince turned to 
Halka. 

‘‘Brave girl. As a Frenchman I 
honour the noble spirit which has 
made you fight for your country. As 
a Prince, and a leader of the Empe- 
ror’s vanguard,” he added grandilo- 
quently, “ I protect you. Your secret 
is safe with Frenchmen. You may 
rely upon our word. Gentlemen of 


Zhc 1Re5 Star 


2II 


my staff,” the Prince looked round 
at his aides-de-camp, you hear 
what I have said.” 

Will the Countess ride as our 
vivandilre^ your highness ? ” asked 
Pallisseaux. She would find us 
good comrades still.” 

If she will honour us so far,” 
said Chastanie. Your highness may 
depend upon our never being de- 
ceived into thinking her a boy 
again.” 

“Yes, yes, your highness,” chor- 
used several of the men. 

Murat laughed loudly, but paused 
as his eyes fell on Pahlen’s darkened 
face. 

“ No, no. Silence, gentlemen ! ” 
he cried. “We feel nothing but 
admiration and respect for this heroic 
girl. I would to Heaven her country- 
men had her courage.” He paused 
and suddenly unpinned the Cross of 
the Legion of Honour that hung on 
his breast. Leaning down he gave 
it to La Bourdonnaye, who, with 
smiling eyes, stepped up to Halka. 

“ There, my child,” said Murat, 


212 


^Tbe 1Reb Star 


wear that, our noblest decoration. 
You have played well the soldier and 
the heroine. Turn your thoughts 
now to love. War is not a woman’s 
work, and you cannot ride with us.” 

La Bourdonnaye laid his hand on 
her jacket. The rest of the staff 
watched him with applauding eyes ; 
and laying the cross on her breast he 
pinned it to the cloth with a gay, 
adoring glance. 

“ Think of me sometimes, Mignon,” 
he murmured. ‘‘We shall meet again.” 

“ Mignon ! Mignon ! ” cried Pallis- 
seaux and Chastanie and three or four 
of the others, and the whole staff 
stood up in their stirrups and cheered 
her. Men bent from their saddles 
with outstretched hands ; eyes smiled 
down at her ; voices that had teased 
and chaffed her took an added note 
of tenderness and homage ; every 
man had words of farewell to say to 
his girl comrade, who would be of 
their mess no more. 

“ Your highness,” exclaimed Pallis- 
seaux, alighting from his horse, his 
face slightly flushed, and his scar a 


XLbc IRet) Star 


213 


dark line across his cheek. Your 
highness, Lieutenant Mnizek owes 
me a debt of honour. He failed to 
pay last night. May I claim it now ? 

A murmur of applause and laughter 
ran through the staff. But La Bour- 
donnaye cried out, ‘‘ Pallisseaux was 
not himself, your highness. He 
forgets. The girl paid.'’ 

It is not true, sir,” said Pallis- 
seaux. “ She did not pay.” 

‘‘ What was the sum ? ” said Murat, 
shortly. 

It can be shown, not spoken, 
sir,” replied Pallisseaux, somewhat 
boldly, and he stepped towards 
Halka. The girl drew back, the 
colour rushed all over her face ; her 
eyes shone like a deer’s at bay. 

Pahlen made a step forward ; his 
own eyes blazed. 

Prince — Prince Murat,” she said, 
unutterable shame and misery in her 
voice — Prince Murat — that man 
shall not dare — Oh — you can never 
know what made me be a soldier — 
God and my country — This has been 
death to me — Oh ” 


214 


X^bc IReD Star 


With one swift salute to Murat she 
turned and fled down the hillock. A 
ringing cheer broke from the men, 
but Pallisseaux pointed his mous- 
tache, smiled defiantly at Pahlen, and 
then leisurely remounted his horse. 

“ Follow her, Count,” said Murat. 

By heaven, she is a brave girl. No 
challenge, sir,” he added sternly as 
he saw Pahlen’s eyes fixed on Pallis- 
seaux. “ If you think your honour is 
insulted, take your revenge when I 
hurl my squadrons on your men. 
Captain La Bourdonnaye shall ac- 
company you beyond my lines.” 

“We shall meet again,” said 
Pahlen, fixing his eyes on Pallisseaux, 
who sneered as he bowed, and then 
saluting the Prince, Pahlen turned 
away. He walked down the slope, 
1 ,a Bourdonnaye keeping pace by his 
side. The guards fell back, and the 
ex-priest grinned as he thought of the 
cheated ball in his carbine. 

When half way across the field the 
Frenchman drew rein. “ Au revoir. 
Count,” he said, gaily. 

Pahlen looked up at him. “ Aide- 


XLbc mb star 


215 


de-camp/' he said, and his words 
came slowly from his lips. Accept 
my thanks.’' 

‘‘ Ah, mon Dieu ! nothing. She 
looked so pretty and shamed. Till 
our next meeting, then,” and La Bour- 
donnaye raised his cap and galloped 
away. 

Now gentlemen,” said Murat, 
authoritatively, “ attend to my words. 
This affair of the girl must be kept 
a secret. We shall be laughed at 
from here to Spain if the story gets 
to the ears of the Emperor and the 
army. Every officer present must 
promise silence.” 

This was at once done, and the 
party rode back to the troops, soon to 
forget in the hurry of war the in- 
cident that a woman had soldiered 
with them. * 

As Halka ran down the slope and 

* The promise was so well kept that the 
story has escaped the investigation of M. 
Thiers, and is not mentioned in the Baron de 
Marbot’s Memoirs, though as that officer was 
afterwards on Murat’s staff in Spain he may 
have heard it. 


2I6 


^be IReb Star 


across the field, she flung her sword 
aside and put her fingers in her ears 
to shut out the men’s cheers. Her 
one devouring wish was to be rid of 
her uniform and be a woman again. 
She felt crushed,’ overwhelmed, cast 
down to the earth. Her mind was 
still in tumult ; she had no plan nor 
hope for the future. Her feet carried 
her almost by instinct over the snow, 
through fields, across roads, straight 
to the huts. 

An old man stood at the door of 
the first as she came up, with one 
hand pressed to her breast, her breath 
coming in sobs. 

Let me speak to your wife or 
daughter ! ” 

The Jew stared at her, bowed low, 
and beckoned to a woman within the 
hovel. 

‘‘Your nobility is no doubt in a 
hurry,” said the Jewess, “as Prince 
Murat is retiring.” 

“Yes ! yes ! ” said Halka, like one 
pursued. “ I must take off this uni- 
form — A woman’s dress ! ” 

“ Ah, a disguise, excellency.” 


^bc IReD Star 


217 


“ No — Oh, quick, quick. Take 
me somewhere where I can change 
my dress.” 

It is a woman ! ” thought the 
Jewess, swiftly. ‘‘Some intrigue with 
the French ! ” 

“ Follow me,” she said out loud, 
and went into the hut, slamming the 
door in the old Jew's face as soon as 
the girl had come in. 

A few minutes later Pahlen arrived 
on the scene. He looked at the 
closed door and hastened to his own 
hut. His guide had gone into Ko- 
nigsberg ; and changing his uniform 
he returned to the open air. 

Drawing near the first hovel, he 
paused by a paling that enclosed a 
small garden. The snow lay heavily 
on the stunted bushes and the 
shrunken cabbage stalks. He leant 
his arm on the rail and waited with 
eyes like those of a man who had 
shed tears. 

When she came out of the hut he 
started, though he had expected the 
change. A look of mingled pain and 
tenderness shot across his face as he 


2I8 


Zbc IReD Star 


watched her cross the road, and pass- 
ing behind the huts, lean against the 
silvered stem of a birch. 

He went towards her, but when 
she saw him coming she stretched 
out both her hands as if to keep him 
off. 

“ Do not come here ! she cried 
in a riven tone. ‘‘ I thought I should 
have died for my country. I have 
died instead of shame for you ! ** 

For answer he knelt for a moment 
at her feet and kissed the coarse hem 
of her peasant skirt. 

My life is yours,’* was all he 
could say. 

She burst into tears, and he dared 
not try to check her grief. He turned 
his face away and looked towards 
the horizon. The French were riding 
across the plain ; their squadrons 
trotting in the bright flashing lines 
in a westerly direction. On the fur- 
ther bank of the Pregel, their move- 
ments were being watched by a body 
of Cossacks. 

He had no words with which to 
thank her for having snatched him 


Cbe IRed Star 


2ig 


back from death. He shrank from 
the sight of her suffering as one 
shrinks from the torture of a child. 

Presently he bent over her ; her 
face was hidden in her hands, her 
whole frame shook with sobs. 

My little soul,*’ he said, how 
shall I comfort you ? ” The deep 
tenderness of his tone reached her 
ear, but for the moment grief and 
shame were stronger than love. 

‘‘ Comfort ! No one can give me 
that ! Not even God,” she sobbed. 
‘‘ I am undone and miserable.” 

‘‘ Dearest,” he said, but he did not 
touch her. ‘‘ I love you.” 

Oh — what have I to do with 
love ! I gave my heart to Poland — 
and this is the end.” 

“ Give it to me,” he said, with a 
tenderness and fire that compelled 
her attention. You lie in my heart. 
Held there, put there for time and 
eternity. Dear, you should have let 
me die. I was not worth this sacri- 
fice. Death after all would have been 
but a little pain.” 

A shudder crept over her. His 


220 


^be IReb Star 


peril, the waiting barrels, the terrible 
scene rose before her again. The 
acutely personal aspect of her grief 
lessened. Love held up the scales ; 
placed her shame against his life, and 
in an instant all her soul was flooded 
with the knowledge that his death 
would have been her despair. Still 
she sobbed and refused to lookup, 
refused — because she dared not- — to 
listen to his words. 

And he, too, saw straight into the 
bitterness of the moment. It had 
leapt upon him as she pleaded for 
his life, that the soldier-girl was the 
woman that time, that eternity had 
planned for him. That there before 
Murat stood the one being for whom 
he would scale the stars, stoop down 
to hell, face sin and death. And yet 
the barrier of another life must keep 
them apart. He turned his face 
away again, a hard look creeping in 
his eyes. 

‘‘ I did it,’' she sobbed, because 
the people wanted my name — I 
thought of what we had lost — Now 
■” her voice broke off. 


— now- 


Zbc IRcD Star 


221 


‘‘ Now you are mine,” said Pahlen, 
suddenly. Dear, the Cossacks are 
crossing the river ; we must go into 
the town.” 

She looked up, met his gaze, and 
the blood rushed into her pale face. 
The future, which her grief had made 
her forget, suddenly appealed to her 
thoughts. It was dark, uncertain ; 
and she dared not take the hand that 
she knew was held out for hers. 

I will go to Gallicia ! ” she said, 
with deep pathos. There — there 
I can hide from the world.” 

My arms would hide you, would 
hold you,” he answered, and his lips 
quivered for a moment. Dear, 
must we part ? ” 

She met his gaze again, and their 
eyes saw into each other’s soul. Then 
hers sank before his. 

Yes,” she said, faintly. 

“ But you love me ! ” he said, with 
passion. 

Look ! ” she answered, and her 
tone wrung his heart. ‘‘ Look.” Her 
hand was held out. See, there in 
my palm I hold your life. I bought 


222 


^bc IReD Star 


it. Nothing can take it from me. It 
is mine. And so — you — you whom I 
saved from death — your honour and 
your name are high things to me — 
and since that other life lies across 
our path — I shall go to the home my 
father left me. But all the world save 
one shall think I am your wife — only 
it must believe also that we hate each 
other and so live apart.’’ 

His face quivered with pain. For 
a moment he would have pleaded with 
her, but her eyes and his own con- 
trition kept him silent. 

I have brought this on you ! ” 
was all he could say. 

No ! ” her voice grew clear and 
sweet. Not you. It was a hard 
thing for a soul to face its ruin. It 
has passed. And now death and life 

bind us together — hereafter ” she 

stopped, her words died away, the 
tears flooded and fell once more from 
her eyes. 

He placed his arms about her ; 
they read again each other’s heart ; 
their lips met, then she broke from 
him. 


XTbc IReb Star 


223 


The clatter and jingle of accoutre- 
ments drew near. A party of Cos- 
sacks were entering the village, wav- 
ing their whips as they cantered 
forward. Seeing Pahlen they rode 
towards him ; their faces fierce and 
eager under their tall astrachan caps. 
The Esaoul or captain of the troop 
stared at him. 

‘‘ What ! is it you, guardsman ! 
he exclaimed. “ Why, we left you 
dead by the wayside. You remem- 
ber me ? Murat’s camp — that night 
— the snow ! I got away from the 
French, and back to my men in time 
for Eylau. Oh, it was a battle ! We 
cut two French divisions in pieces. 
We are merry enough now in Konigs- 
berg. The Emperor and the Prussian 
king are there.” 

‘‘ And all the Emperor’s court ? ” 
said Pahlen, speaking eagerly, his 
tone anxious and bitter. 

All. The losses of Eylau have 
been cast into the shade in its opinion 
by the death of Prince Volkonsky’s 
wife. You have seen her? A beauti- 
ful woman. Fever and grief for a 


224 


tube IReb Star 


brother killed at Eylau carried her 
off. Every one is talking of her 
death and pitying her husband. The 
minister is distracted, and his Majesty 
has been most gracious to him.” 

A light gathered in Pahlen's eyes ; 
death can be merciful to the living 
sometimes. 

“ The Countess and I are going 
into Konigsberg,” he said. ‘‘ We 
have had a narrow escape from the 
French.” 

The Esaoul raised his cap. This 
lady ” 

Is my wife,” answered Pahlen, in 
the tone of one who has been twice 
reprieved, 

The Cossack officer bowed again, 
and led his men back to the huts, 
where the terrified Jews stood cower- 
ing by their doors. Pahlen turned 
to Halka. 

‘‘ Come,” he said, and took her 
hand. Her eyes sought his, fright- 
ened, inquiring. 

‘‘ The life that lay across our path 
has gone,” he said, his face grave 


Zbc IRcD Star 


225 


and tender. ‘‘We will go into Kdnigs- 
berg.’^ 

“ And she — the Princess ? 

“Was the other/' he answered, 
and bent and kissed her. 


THE END. 








THE INCOGNITO LIBRARY. 


A series of small books by representative 
writers, whose names will for the present not 
be given. 

In this series will be included the authorized 
American editions of the future issues of Mr. 
Unwin’s “ Pseudonym Library,” which has 
won for itself a noteworthy prestige. 

32mo, limp cloth, each 50 cents. 

I. The Shen’s Pigtail, and Other Cues of 

Anglo-China Life, by Mr. M . 

II. The Hon. Stanbury and Others, by 

Two. 

III. Lesser’s Daughter, by Mrs. Andrew 

Dean. 

IV. A Husband of No Importance, by 

“Rita.” 

V. Helen, by Oswald Valentine. 

VI. A Gender in Satin, by “ Rita.” 

VII. Every Day’s News, by C. E. Francis. 

These will be followed by volumes by other 
well-known authors. 





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